All The Blame
by AvalonHeights
Summary: -Rewrite of Headstrong and These Walls-. From the moment Avalon Mitchell met the Power Rangers, she knew what was important: family, friendship, and, love...but she's tormented by pain and misery. They'll need each other to get through it all. TommyxKim, some BillyxTrini. *Please check out poll to decide who Avalon should end up with*.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning Of The End

**All The Blame**

**Full Summary: **She's always been a loner; always taking care of herself, and she wasn't afraid of anything. But her past and current mistakes makes things hard for her when she transfers to Angel Grove High. Now she has to deal with working on a team along with keeping her secrets from them, knowing that if she is found out, her whole life would fall apart. Is it true when they say that there's strength in numbers? Or is it better to go alone? From the moment Avalon Mitchell met the other Power Rangers, she knew what was important: family, friendship, and, love...but she's tormented by pain and misery. They'll need each other to get through it all. Re-write of 'Headstrong' and 'These Walls'

* * *

**Chapter 01**

* * *

"Hey Trini, Hey Billy, how was your guys' weekend?" Kimberly Hart asked as she hurried over to her friends Monday morning. With a bright smile on her face, she was clutched her books to her chest, practically skipping over to them. They were just hanging out before school starts, taking time at their lockers to catch up. As usual, the Monday morning blues never got to Kimberly's passionate personality.

"It was good." Trini said. She smiled and nodded, pulling some of her hair behind her ear. "My parents and I were able to see some relatives that we haven't seen in so long."

"That's so cool, Trini." Kimberly grinned. "You must have been so excited."

"I was until I realized that they were going to be all squeezed into our house," Trini said with a light laugh. "It was fun though." She turned to Billy. "How was your weekend? Were you working on that science project?"

"Definitely," Billy said. He finished pulling his books out of his locker and shut the door. "It's in the preliminary stages so far." He couldn't stop the proud smile that wormed its way onto his face. "But by the time I'm done, it's sure to be the newest invention that can change all of mankind."

"You mean like these?" Kimberly smiled back, holding out her communicator. She looked around to be sure that no one would notice before resting her hand on Billy's shoulder. "I think that's great, Billy. You always do such amazing things with your projects."

"Thank you."

"What's going on party people?" Zack announced his presence as he appeared behind the group of friends. Jason and Tommy were with him as well, though they weren't as vocal as Zack was. Smiles and nods were the only greetings they got from the red and white rangers. "So, Ernie's after school? I'm really going to need to cram for this History test that's coming up."

"When are you not, Zack?" Jason teased, lightly hitting his friend on the shoulder. "If you spent half as much time as you do dancing and flirting with Angela, then you wouldn't have a problem with your schoolwork."

"Thanks Dad." Zack rolled his eyes.

"He does have a point though," Tommy commented. "School work first and then fun later." He put his arm around Kimberly's shoulders. "If you keep up that attitude in life, you'll definitely get far."

"And then I'll die of boredom," Zack countered causing the group of friends to laugh. "C'mon, we should get to class." The group then turned on their heel and started to walk down the hall to their class. He stopped when he noticed someone unfamiliar down the hallway at their locker. "Hey, have you guys ever seen her around before?"

The others turned to see where he was pointing and spotted a girl with dark brown hair at her locker. She was wearing a black leather jacket over a white cami that showed some of her stomach and burnt orange shorts as well as black boots. On her face was an expression that was a mixture of anxiety and irritation as she watched students walk back and forth through the hallway. She then turned back to her locker, appearing to be looking for something.

"I think she's new," Trini said as she studied her. "I don't think I've seen her around before."

"She's probably a transfer if she's here this late in the school year," Billy added.

"Well, being the new kid is never easy," Kimberly said.

She looked at Tommy for confirmation and he nodded in agreement. It wasn't that long ago that Tommy had first started at Angel Grove High School and now he was one of the most well-known guys in school. It helped that he was just as athletic and good at martial arts that Jason was.

Kimberly then beamed at her friends, a tell-tale sign that she was up to something. "Let's go introduce ourselves." She then walked over to the girl and stopped by her locker. "Hi, are you new here?"

"You haven't seen me around, so I guess so," the girl replied, briefly looking away from her locker to look at Kimberly. Her brown eyes briefly looked the pink ranger up and down before returning to her locker. Letting out a short sigh, she continued to search through the books that have been shoved inside.

"Well, I'm Kimberly," Kimberly placed a hand on her chest before turning and pointing behind her. "And these are my friends Trini, Billy, Jason, Zack, and Tommy." Each of them gave a smile and wave as their name had been called.

"Avalon." She closed her locker and picked up her backpack off of the ground. Using her right hand, she pushed her hair off of her shoulders, the light bouncing off of a silver pinky ring. "Nice to meet you, I guess."

"Oh, that's such a cool name," Trini said.

"But so long, do you have a nickname or something?" Zack asked. He put a finger to his chin as he started to think about it. "Avatar? Av? Avie? Lonnie?"

Avalon's eyes flashed. "No, it'sjust Avalon."

"Did you just move to Angel Grove?" Tommy asked.

Avalon hesitated then shook her head. "No, I've lived here for a while," she said. "I just transferred here. I was homeschooled and my parents thought that my social skills weren't up to par so here I am." She shrugged.

"I couldn't help but notice that you have an accent," Jason spoke up. "Is it British?"

"Australian, actually," Avalon corrected him. "I was born and raised in Australia, and then we moved here a couple of years ago." She looked at her watch. "I have to go." She hitched her backpack up her shoulder before she moved to walk around the group.

"We could show you around," Jason offered. He nodded over at Tommy. "We know that being new can be hard." He studied Avalon. "It'll be good to know that you have some friends to help you. What are you looking for? Your first class or the administration office?"

Avalon opened her mouth to reply and the warning bell went off. She then closed her mouth, her eyebrows rising. "The bathroom, actually," she replied before stepping around them and walking down the hallway, her boots clumping along the ground as she went.

"She seems nice," Zack said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"She's new," Trini defended her. "It can't be easy, especially if she was homeschooled first." She held out her arm. "We should get going or we're going to be late.

"And I'm sure that Zack can't be late or he'll get _another_ detention," Kimberly teased Zack as the group walked off towards their first class. Zack gave a monotone laugh in reply.

"Watch it short-stuff, I can still get a better grade than you in Math," Zack teased back. He laughed as he followed his friends into the classroom.

* * *

Avalon Mitchell smiled to herself as the final bell of the day rang.

She got out of her seat and hurried to her locket to grab her backpack and to get the books that she would need for homework that night. She moved as fast as she could, hoping that she wouldn't be stopped by anyone. It wasn't that she wasn't happy that people actually took the time to try and make her feel welcome; it was that they were slowing her down. She had been late to her classes all day because someone would come up and try to help her. Kimberly appeared to be in everyone one of her classes as well as Billy, and everyone else had a slightly different schedule than hers, but would try to help her get to class anyway. At lunch, she managed to sit by herself; it gave her time to think about what she had to do after school that day. If she was even one second late, it would just cause a lot of problems.

Avalon pulled a skateboard out of her locker and closed the door shut with a sharp push of her hip. She then hurried down the hallways, pushing her way through the crowd that blocked the entrance to the school and hurried down the steps. Miss timing her jump down the last step, she stumbled and crashed into someone, causing them to drop their backpacks.

"Hey, dweeb, why don't you watch where you're going?" he demanded.

"Yeah, why don't you watch where he's going?" the skinny guy next to him agreed with a nod and a slight sneer.

"Whatever." Avalon quickly grabbed the book bags and shoved them into the guys' chests. She then turned and grabbed onto her own stuff and picked them up. "I don't have time for this, I'm in a hurry." She placed her skateboard on the ground and pushed off with her left foot, going as fast as she could. She kept going until she reached a nearby school. As she slowed to a stop and picked up her board, a crowd of little kids raced by her; yelling to their friends, waving to each other, and jumping into their cars. Avalon looked around until she spotted a familiar face. "Bailey!" She called.

A little girl, about the age of eleven hurried over to Avalon, her brown ponytail bobbing behind her. "Hey Av," she greeted as she stopped in front of her pushing her glasses up her freckled nose. "How was school today?"

"Fine, I guess." Avalon shrugged, bending down to pick up her skateboard and tucked it under her arm. She held out her free hand to take Bailey's backpack. "How about you?"

"Good." Bailey smiled and nodded. "A girl already invited me to her house this weekend," she replied as the two started to walk down the street in the opposite direction of Angel Grove High. "And," her nose wrinkled. "This boy wouldn't stop picking on me. The only realistic explanation is that he likes me. But I don't have time for boys right now."

"Bay, you're eleven," Avalon pointed out.

"So?" Bailey stuck her nose in the air stubbornly. "I have to focus on my studies _not _boys." She turned her head and peered at Avalon. "Did you make any new friends today? I know that Mum always said that it was hard for you, but-"

"No, I didn't make any new friends today," Avalon cut in, rolling her eyes at her little sister. "I don't need any more friends than I do now." She looked at her watch. "Speaking of, we got to get you home or I'm going to be late meeting them." She ignored Bailey's heavy, impatient sigh, but couldn't ignore her stare. "What? Bay, they're not bad."

"You keep getting in trouble when they're around," Bailey pointed out. The two stopped at a cross-walk, waiting for the traffic to lighten up before they could safely get across. "Even a baby could figure out that they're bad news." She pushed her glasses up her nose once more, looking up when she heard a car honk its horn. Avalon followed Bailey's gaze and spotted Kimberly in a bright pink corvette, waving at Avalon as she drove by. "Who was that?"

"You know how whenever you are new to school there's always that one person that tries very hard to make you feel welcome?" Avalon asked. She looked both ways before crossing the street with her sister at her side. "This time there were six of them. They wouldn't leave me alone all day."

Bailey let out an even bigger sigh than before. "You're such a boofhead, Av."

"Thanks, Bay, love you too." Avalon replied. The two continued waking until they reached an apartment complex. Avalon then stopped and handed Bailey her backpack. "Alright, I should be back by seven at the latest. Don't answer the door for anyone, if the phone rings, just say I'm asleep. If you need me, you can just page me and I'll get to a phone as soon as possible. Do your homework and I'll bring home something for dinner."

"I know what to do by now Av, I'm not a baby," Bailey rolled her eyes. She then looked concerned for her sister. "Stay safe, aright?"

"Promise." Avalon held out her pinky finger, the ring flashing in the light. Bailey gave a small smile and hooked her pinky with her sister's before running into the apartment complex. Avalon then turned on her heel, fixing the collar to her leather jacket and started to walk off again. She walked for about twenty minutes, looking over her shoulder every now and then, being sure not to be followed, before ducking down into an alleyway.

Avalon walked over to the group of teenagers that were standing in a circle and talking and laughing with each other. They were all wearing a lot of black; on each of their hands were a silver ring. The tallest guy, who had shaggy blonde hair and green eyes turned, noticing Avalon coming their way. He smiled and nodded at her before she joined their group. "Hey Pinky, how's it going?" he asked.

"Not bad," Avalon replied, nodding over to everyone else in the group. "School was boring as usual." She held up her hands. "Don't ask."

"I won't," The guy replied. His green eyes flashed as he looked behind her. "No one followed you?"

"I think I know what I'm doing at this point, Chase," Avalon cocked her right eyebrows. "No, no one followed me. I'm not that much of a dill." She then wrinkled her nose. "Which reminds me, weren't you the one that told us that we should only do these things in the cover of night?"

"So we're running low on cash," A boy with black hair said carelessly. "We can't wait that much longer."

"Lance is right," Chase agreed. "We're running low on cash and the place that we scoped out is practically deserted at this time." He looked around at the group once more and nodded. "Let's get going." Avalon shoved her hands into her shorts pockets and went with the group as they walked out of the alleyway.

* * *

"Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi! Zordon, are you sure that she's the one that we need to help us?" Alpha 5 continued to watch a picture of Avalon on the viewing globe as she walked along with her friends. Unlike the smile that was on her face when she was with her sister, Avalon now had a look of anxiety and stern determination on her face. "You know what they're going to do!"

"Yes, Alpha, but she has shown many times that she is the power force that we need," Zordon replied. "We have been watching her for a while now and all of the bad decisions that she makes is heavily outweighed by the good things that she has done for herself and for her sister."

"But what if she doesn't make the right decision with her powers?" Alpha continued to worry. He turned from the viewing globe and turned back to Zordon, moving his hands to his hips. "Can we really take that risk?"

"The only risk that we're taking at this point is whether or not this will really help in the defeat of Rita and Lord Zedd," Zordon stuck but his decision. At that moment, a warning signal went off in the command center as lights began to flash. Zordon and Alpha turned their attention back to the viewing globe where the image of Z-Putties closing in on Avalon and her friends as they started to cross through the park.

"Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi! We need to alert the Power Rangers!" Alpha cried.

"Not yet, Alpha, we need to determine whether or not Avalon will rise to the occasion," Zordon commanded.

* * *

"Ok, the first house that we're going to hit, you need to be sure to go around the back and-"Chase let out a cry and jumped backwards when a Z-Putty jumped in front of him, waving his arms around. "What is that thing?"

"Don't tell me you're scared, Chase," Lance laughed loudly.

"I wouldn't be laughing Lance," Avalon said, taking a step back. "These guys look fucking crazy." She took another step back and stumbled, falling to the ground. She looked up as the Z-Putties turned and started to advance towards her. "Of all the times I have to be clumsy," she muttered under her breath, watching as the Z-Putties got closer to her, forming a circle around her. "Guys, I could use a little help here!" She called.

But between the waving arms and legs, Avalon could see Chase, Lance, and the rest of the group running away as fast as they could. Avalon gritted her teeth before getting to her feet, moving her hands by her face. "Boofheads." She turned her attention to the putties. "Alright, let's see what this street fighting has taught you" she said under her breath. A Z-Putty jumped in front of her and Avalon ducked as it swung towards her face. Avalon popped back to her feet and punched the Z-Putty right in the face. She let out a cry, waving the pain off of her hand before she backed up and aimed a kick towards another Z-Putty.

The Z-Putties continued to attack her, no matter how hard she fought back. Due to her lack of actual training in fighting, she fought with impulse rather than judgment; her punches and kicks came from what seemed like would be a good idea, wild and carefree rather than thought out and put together. It worked for her, at first, but then the Z-Putties had caught on and managed to hit her in the back and the face, knocking her to the ground a few times. Each time, she would get back to her feet and continue fighting, her frustration starting to blind her. It was one of her wild swings, her arms practically wind-milled, that she managed to hit one of the Z-Putties in the middle of its chest.

"Wha?" Avalon lowered her arms slightly, watching as the Z-Putty crumbled and disappeared right before her eyes. Her eyebrows rose and then a slow, smirk slid onto her face. "So that's what gets rid of these blokes, huh?" She crouched slightly, resting her weight on the balls of her feet. "Time to get rid of these clowns!"

Avalon jumped forward and sent a roundhouse kick to a Z-Putty's chest. She didn't wait to watch the putty disintegrate before she turned to attack the others. They seemed to have noticed that she had been able to destroy the other putties for they had started to back away from Avalon in obvious distress. She back peddled and sent her boot into another Z-Putty's chest. As she turned around to attack the others, she was hit in the face and sent sprawling to the ground. Avalon blocked her face by crossing her arms as a Z-Putty tried to attack her again; she pushed the putty back and did a kick-up back to her feet before sending her elbow into the Z-Putty's chest. She then turned to the remaining Z-Putty and charged towards it, running at full speed. She tackled the Z-Putty to the ground and punched both of her fists into the Z-Putty's chest, causing it to disintegrate out from underneath her.

Avalon rested her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

"What was that about?"

All of a sudden, the ground started to shake underneath her.

"What now?" Avalon raised a hand to her head, feeling a little light-headed, and then let out a cry as she was suddenly lifted off of the ground and into the sky in a bright orange energy glow.

...

..

.

"Avalon, are you all right?"

Avalon opened her eyes, she hadn't realized that she had closed them, and slowly took in her surroundings. She was lying on her back on the floor, looking up t the ceiling. Around her she could hear beeps and whistles from machinery and could see flashing lights from machines that she had never seen before in her life. She sat up and quickly backed away when she noticed the robot that had been standing next to her. Angry, she got to her feet.

"Look, I don't know how I got here, but I'm letting you know now that you'll regret it if you tell anyone you saw me!" She spat.

"Avalon, calm down we're on your side," Alpha pleaded with her, his hands outstretched towards her.

"Who's we?" Avalon took another step back, her eyes narrowed. "How the fuck did I get here?"

"We teleported you here after your fight against the Z-Putties," Zordon said, his voice causing Avalon to turn around so fast that her brown hair whipped around and smacked her in the face.

"Z-Putties?" Avalon repeated. Her brown eyes rolled once before she nodded. "Right, those freakish clay things that attacked me." She then seemed to realize that she was talking to a floating head, for she rested her hand flat on her forehead, the other was sitting on her hip. "I must have gotten hit in the head or knocked out or something."

"No, Avalon, we have brought you here because we need your help," Zordon said firmly. Avalon turned her head up to him, listening curiously. "There is an evil witch out here, intent on taking over the world named Rita Repulsa. Alongside her is the evil monster Lord Zedd. Together the two of them have been sending monsters down to Earth in hopes to take over the world. But we have had some help in the form of the Power Rangers to combat their evil plot."

"Right." Avalon crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow her upper lip curling at the same time. "So what does this have to do with me? I mean, you already said that you had the Power Rangers to help you, mate."

"The six rangers that we have already are not enough to defeat the combined powers of Rita and Zedd. Avalon, you will be given extraordinary powers by a dinosaur," Zordon explained patiently. Avalon opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when something flashed in front of her. She looked down to see what looked like a belt buckle sitting on the front of her belt. She picked it up and turned it around, her eyebrows lowering. "What's this?

"That is your Power Morpher; when you're in Danger, you raise it to the sky and call out the name of your dinosaur and you will morph into a Power Ranger." Zordon continued. He seemed to be ignoring Avalon's attitude with the whole thing. He could see Alpha's distress as the conversation went on, but he knew what he was doing. This girl had been chosen for a reason.

Avalon snorted as she replaced the morpher to her belt. "Sorry, mate, but it sounds like something out of a comic book." She shook her head and looked around again. "A surefire sign that I'm dreaming."

"Zordon, she doesn't believe!" Alpha cried, his hands going to his head. "Are you sure about this? The other rangers need help an we need someone that they can completely depend on!"

"This rust bucket is right," Avalon agreed, nodding over to Alpha. He turned to her and while he didn't have a face, she could tell that she had offended him. "No offense" she added quickly before turning back to Zordon. "This is just to weird...it doesn't happen to normal people." She then shook her head, looking down at her morpher once more. "Alright, so if this whole thing is real...what's my dinosaur?"

"Avalon, Impulsive and Caring, you shall command the Stegosaurus Dinozord," Zordon replied.

Avalon's right eyebrow lowered as she studied her feet. She was taking everything in...the plan with her friends, being attacked by the putties, then somehow being transported to this place and being told that she was going to have powers that would help them save the world. She shook her head as she looked up at Zordon again. _There's no way that this is real. I must have been knocked out when we hit that house or something. _She pushed her hair out of her face and then froze when she remembered. Her friends had abandoned her...what if Bailey was trying to get a hold of her? She needed to get home!

"I gotta make sure that Bailey's OK," she said out loud, more to herself than to Zordon and Alpha. She turned and started to walk out of the command center, but then stopped and turned around. "Hang on a tick, how did you even know where I was to get me here?"

"With the viewing globe," Alpha replied, pointing to the glass globe that was sitting at the side of the room. "We can see when the other Rangers are in trouble or when the Earth is being attacked. We saw that you were being attacked by the Z-Putties and watched as you fought them off. Zordon was sure that you were the one that we needed and teleported you here."

"Right," Avalon said after a second. "Could you teleport me home then? Or something?"

"Your morpher has the ability to teleport you wherever you need to go," Zordon instructed. Avalon nodded and made a face of confusion as she moved her hands to her belt, trying to figure out how to get back home to her sister. "You may not believe in the power that you have, but Alpha and I know that you are what can help the rangers stop Rita and Zedd."

Avalon looked up at Zordon once more before she teleported out of the command center in a flash of orange light.

"Do you really believe that she can help us?" Alpha asked, turning back to Zordon.

"Yes, Alpha, I do, whether she believes in herself or not, she can do this."

* * *

**A/N: **Ok, here's the beginning of the re-write of _Headstrong _and _These Walls. _A little bit of this chapter has been changed/fixed/tweaked and while some of the first few chapters of this story will be from _Headstrong _and _These Walls _the shorter ones will be expanded upon. Part of my original idea has been changed a little, but it'll won't change my overall plot completely.

What else….? Oh, like others, I've thought about doing a series with my character Avalon if she had been in the show from the beginning as I've mentioned to my friend, Red-Black24 before, but I haven't decided yet. Anyway, I hope you guys liked the new start.

**-AvalonHeights11**


	2. Chapter 2: Misery Loves Company

**Chapter 02**

* * *

"So, Tommy, how come you haven't asked Kim to go to the dance yet?" Zack asked, leaning forward against the table and passing a smoothie back and forth between his hands. He quickly took a sip before looking up at Tommy and giving him a hard look. "She's been waiting for you to ask her, man."

"Zack, the dance isn't until next month," Tommy pointed out, leaning back in his seat.

The two of them were at the Youth Center, waiting for Jason, Billy, Kimberly, and Trini to arrive. Much like they did every day, they hung out at the youth center after school to hang out with each other, to work on their gymnastics, to work out, or in Jason's case, to teach a martial arts class to some little kids.

"So? Girls are highly in tune with this sort of thing," Zack replied. He gave a half smile. "They have to know who they're going with, what color dress they're wearing, and what kind of shoes and purse to get to go along with the dress they're wearing. And they have to know all of that two weeks before the dance at the _latest_."

Tommy smirked. "And how is it that you know that?"

"Because I'm in tune with my feminine side," Zack laughed to himself before reaching out and lightly hitting Tommy on the arm. "Come on, man, why haven't you asked yet?"

"Well, I mean, I know that we're already dating," Tommy said slowly. "I'm just not sure-"

"Why she wants to go out with you?" Zack broke in with a grin. He frowned when he noticed the serious look on Tommy's face. "I was just kidding. What's wrong? What's going on?"

"I just don't know _how_ to ask her," Tommy replied. "I mean-" he licked his lips. "I know that girls are always expecting these…cute ways of being asked, rather than just going up to her and asking her and I don't really know how to do that."

"Oh, a case of the nerves." Zack nodded empathetically. "Don't worry, we've all been there. If you want my advice, I say just go with the flow. Wait until the timing is perfect and then go ahead and ask her to go to the dance with you. She's already dating you, so I don't think that she'll ever say no."

"Yeah, thanks," Tommy nodded before taking a large sip of his own smoothie. He sat up straight when he noticed the others had walked through the doorway of the youth center. "Do you mind not mentioning this to anyone else?" He asked.

"Secret's safe with me," Zack replied with a wink, leaning back in his chair as well. He looked up as Jason, Kimberly, Trini, and Billy pulled out some more chairs and sat down with them. "Running a little late today?"

"Oh, we were just talking to some of the teachers to get their ideas of what to do for homecoming next month," Kimberly said as he placed her backpack on the ground and leaned forward, resting her crossed arms onto the table. "I'm so excited for spirit week and the dance and everything. It should be so much fun."

Zack raised an eyebrow a he looked over at Tommy. Tommy silently gave him a warning look in reply.

"So far we've come up with some of the games that are going to be played," Trini added with a nod. "Like tug of war, the hula-hoop game, seeing which grade can cheer the loudest." She smiled warmly as she looked around at all of her friends. "There's always so much more that we can come up with."

"And there're the games that we have planned for the younger kids from the elementary and middle schools," Jason chimed in. "Just so they can feel like they're being involved too."

"The satisfaction rate of this year's spirit week and homecoming should greatly exceed those numbers that were projected last year," Billy concluded.

"I'll take your word for it," Zack laughed.

"He means that it should be a bigger success than last year's," Trini translated for him.

"That I got," Zack pointed at Trini before leaning over and looking at Billy. "Now how come you can't just speak in English like that? It would be so much easier than having Trini parrot you all the time." Zack, Jason, Billy, and Tommy laughed as Kimberly and Trini tossed balled up napkins at him.

Tommy's laughter faded and his groan alerted his friends over towards the doorway to the youth center. Avalon had entered, looking around and it seemed that Bulk and Skull were ready to get started on bugging her. When she had walked in Tommy had noticed that Bulk had nudged Skull on the arm and pointed over at her as she slowly continued to walk inside, her eyes scanning the place, as if she were looking for someone.

"They can't give it a rest of a day?" Kimberly asked, rolling her eyes.

"Apparently not," Jason agreed as he stood up, pushing his chair into the table. "She's probably an easy target for them, being the new kid and all." He held up a hand before walking over to Bulk and Skull.

"You're the one that bumped into me yesterday," Bulk accused, blocking Avalon's path. She merely looked him up and down. "I don't remember getting an apology for it."

"Sorry." Avalon shrugged as she shoved her hands into her leather jacket pockets. "It was kind of hard to miss you." She tilted her head and looked up at him. "And I did remember to apologize. Clearly, unlike you, I actually have manners."

Skull laughed out loud, and a sharp look from Bulk caused him to immediately shut up. "Do you know who this is?" Skull said, pointing over at Bulk, who had a proud smile on his face. "This is Bulky, the toughest guy around here."

"Oh, really?" Avalon looked interested as she straightened herself from her slouching position. "Could you be my bodyguard then? There are so many sticky beaks around here that don't get the idea of personal space." Bulk chucked as he looked down at her.

"Excuse me." Jason tapped Bulk on the arm, getting his, Skull's, and Avalon's attention. "Is this guy bothering you?"

"Do you have a problem, dweeb?" Bulk asked, turning his attention to Jason. "I was talking here."

"Yeah, he was talking here," Skull parroted. "So why don't you just butt out, dweeb."

"I'm fine." Avalon held up her hands and waved them slightly, getting everyone's attention. "No one's bothering me." Her eyes moved over the three boys. "Much," she started to walk around Jason. "Thanks for the help, Rudolph, but I don't need it."

"Rudolph?" Skull repeated and then started to laugh hysterically. Jason turned and raised an eyebrow at Skull and he immediately stopped laughing. He patted Bulk on the arm and started to back away. "Let's get out of here, Bulk, I'm sure that there's something else that we can do to entertain ourselves."

"Whatever." Bulk shrugged and started to leave. He pointed over at Jason. "Just don't but into my conversations again, or you'll regret it."

Jason didn't take the threat seriously as he started to walk back to the table that he and his friends were sitting at. He caught up to Avalon as they neared the table. "Don't worry about Bulk and Skull," he said to her. "Combined, they don't really have the brain power to be the slightest bit intimidating."

Avalon huffed and stopped sharply, causing Jason to almost walk right into her. She turned around and narrowed her eyes into a glare, her brown eyes flashing with annoyance. "I just told you, I don't need your help." She placed her hands on her hips. "Why is it so hard for you to take 'no' for an answer?"

Jason shrugged. "You're new here, so I thought that you could use some friends."

"Correction, I _transferred_ here," Avalon said. "I've been in Angel Grove for three years now. I already have some friends. Some of which," she pointed over her shoulder to the group that was sitting around a table at the back of the youth center. "Are over there." She turned back to Jason. "Now, will you please-"

"Salutations, Avalon!"

Avalon slowly turned to Kimberly, Zack, Trini, Tommy, and Billy. It was Billy that had spoke to her. Trini must have noticed the confused look on Avalon's face, as she sat up straight. "He said 'hello'," she translated for him.

"Hey," Avalon gave a short, sarcastic wave as Jason moved to go sit back down.

"How was the second day of classes for you?" Tommy asked her. "I was new not too long ago, so I knew that coming to a new place can be hard."

"It was fine," Avalon said shortly. She shrugged, pushing her hair behind her ears. "Not that different from any of my other schools. Just the lockers aren't outside and I don't have to wear a uniform."

"What was it like?" Kimberly asked, wrinkling her nose slightly. "If I had to wear a uniform, I swear I would die."

"It wasn't that bad," Avalon said flatly. "That way I didn't have to worry about taking forever to choose what I was going to wear in the morning. It gave a lot more time for me and Bailey to-"She immediately stopped herself, looking like she was annoyed that she had said too much.

"Who's Bailey?" Zack asked kindly.

"No one," Avalon said quickly. She looked at her feet. "Look, my friends are over there and-"She stopped when she heard a strange beeping sound, not noticing that the others had stiffened as soon as they heard the sound. "What was that?"

"Must have been a beeper," Tommy said quickly, widening his eyes over at his friends, silently warning them not to say anything. They all stayed silent, either nodding in agreement or acting like they didn't hear anything in the slightest.

"Right," Avalon turned and walked over to her friends, sitting down at the table.

Tommy waited to be sure that no one was watching them before he lifted a hand, slowly motioning for the others to follow him. He looked over his shoulders before he led the group behind a corner of the Youth Center. He waited for a few people to pass by before bringing his communicator up to his mouth.

"Go ahead, Zordon."

"Rangers, Rita and Zedd have sent out a group of putties along with the Bonbon Bomber monster in the park."

"We're on our way." Tommy lowered his communicator from his mouth and looked over at his friends with a nod. They nodded back at him and he faced forward as they simultaneously put their hands behind their backs. "It's morphin' time! Tiger Zord!"

"Mastodon!"

"Pterodactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Saber Tooth Tiger!"

"Tyrannosaurus!"

* * *

"All kids love candy, so why don't you try some?" The Bonbon Bomber was a monster that was made entirely of candy.

To be specific, it was made of jawbreakers and it had arms and legs sticking out of it. Where its mouth should be was what looked like a cannon. The Bonbon Bomber shot out a barrage of balls of candy that exploded on impact when it hit the ground. Kids were screaming as parents ran to grab their sons and daughters and rush them to safety.

"Everybody get out of here," Trini helped push some of the parents out of the way. "We can handle this."

"You guys go for the putties," Tommy instructed, looking at Zack, Trini, Kimberly, and Billy. He then turned to Jason and nodded. "We'll take care of the Bonbon Bomber."

"Right!" Zack, Trini, Kimberly, and Billy chorused before running forward and started to attack the Z-Putties.

Jason and Tommy turned and started to attack the Bonbon Bomber. They quickly found that trying to attack it at close range didn't work, as he would easily turn his canon towards them and shoot candy out towards them. Tommy and Jason flipped backwards out of the way and hurried in to attack at close range once more. They managed to hit the Bonbon Bomber with a roundhouse kick, knocking it to the ground. But as he fell, it managed to shoot more candy out and hit the two of them in the chest, causing them to fall back onto the ground.

"Tommy!" Kimberly cried. She leaned on her left foot and used her right to kick a putt in the chest. She did three back-hand flips and then attacked a few other putties that had surrounded her. "Jase!"

"They got a direct hit!" Zack said. He jumped up and kicked a putty in the Z on his chest, causing it to disintegrate. "We have to help them."

"Right behind you," Trini gave a thumbs up before punching another putty in the chest. She then turned and elbowed one right behind her before bending over, putting her weight on her right foot, sticking her left one back and kicking another putty in the chest.

"He won't know what hit him," Billy agreed. He jumped up in the air and did a split, hitting two putties at the same time.

"This is going to be sweet!" The Bonbon Bomber moved his hands in front of his cannon. When he removed his hands, in rapid-fire succession, candy went flying out towards the rangers so quickly. They all dove and rolled out of the way. But no matter where they moved to, the Bonbon Bomber would come back and shoot out another barrage.

Kimberly and Trini cried out in pain as they got a direct hit and flew back to the ground, sparks flying from their suits.

"This clown is going down!" Jason moved his hand to the side. "Power sword!" His weapon appeared in his hand and he rushed forward, swinging his sword towards the Bonbon Bomber. He managed to get a few hits before he was knocked back again.

"Power Bow!" Kimberly's weapon appeared in her hands and she brought the bow back, firing an arrow at the Bonbon Bomber.

"Power Axe!" Zack jumped up into the air and sliced the Bonbon Bomber with his axe, knocking it to the ground.

"Power Daggers!" Trini moved in close to hit it as well, sparks flying when the powered up metal of her daggers hit the monster.

"Power Lance!" Billy spun his lance to the side and then spun it back, using both ends of the lance to cut into the Bonbon Bomber.

"Looks like we've got him now, guys." Tommy said, moving in for the kill.

"I don't think so!" The Bonbon Bomber used its canon to push itself back up to its feet. He started to laugh evilly as his canon glowed red, sucking in as much power as it could.

"What's it doing?" Trini lowered her daggers.

"It looks like its getting ready for something," Zack nervously tightened his grip on his axe.

"Let's see if you can handle this sweet treat!" The Bonbon Bomber's canon was glowing neon red at this point and it seemed to be pulsing with energy. It moved its hands in front of the canon once more. "Cherry Bomb!"

A large blast of energy shot out and hit the rangers, blasting them into the air. They crash landed painfully on the ground. They all writhed with pain, trying to get back up so they could continue fighting. But they overestimated the power of Rita's and Zedd's monster this time. The Bonbon Bomber started to walk closer to the fallen rangers.

"Let's see if you can handle my Blue Raspberry Blast!" His canon started to glow blue this time.

"Stegorang!"

The Bonbon Bomber let out a cry of rage as a boomerang decorated with spikes came flying out of nowhere and hit its canon. The Bonbon Bomber spun in a circle but kept its balance. He then turned and pointed his canon at a figure that was slowly walking towards them.

"Who is that?" Billy asked, rolling onto his side. "It looks like…" he painfully grasped his shoulder. "Another ranger."

"Another ranger?" Tommy echoed.

The orange ranger walked closer to them, but stopped far enough away that they couldn't tell whether it was male or female. The orange ranger reached up a hand and grabbed onto the boomerang and it disappeared in a flash of orange light.

"You're gonna pay for that!" The Bonbon Bomber shot out his Blue Raspberry energy blast and it raced towards the orange ranger.

"Power Staff!" A large staff with plates like a stegosaurus as well as the same sort of spikes that the boomerang had, appeared in the orange ranger's hand. The ranger stepped to the side and held the staff like a baseball bat. At the last minute, the energy blast shot back towards the Bonbon Bomber and got lodged in his canon.

"Looks like this is the break that we need guys," Jason said as he and the other rangers got to their feet. "Let's bring it together!"

"Power Axe!" Zack tossed his weapon into the air, making the bulk of the combined weapon.

"Power Bow!" Kimberly threw hers to add onto Zack's weapon, giving the blaster wings.

"Power Daggers!" Trini spun her weapons around her fingers before throwing it up to add onto the weapon.

"Power Lance!" Billy pulled his lance apart and threw it up onto the weapon as well.

"Power Sword!" Jason jumped up high into the air and brought his sword down on top of the weapon, making the power blaster complete. "Let's do it guys." He held onto the power blaster and Kimberly, Trini, Zack, and Billy all crowded around him to help him hold onto the weapon. "Ready?"

"You got it, guys." Tommy encouraged.

"Fire!" the five of them cried in unison and the blaster show out its energy right into the canon of the Bonbon Bomber.

The Bonbon Bomber screamed as he fell to the ground, exploding as it did so. The power blaster dismantled and the rangers regained their weapons before they all disappeared. Tommy congratulated his fellow rangers before turning back to where the orange ranger had been, but it had disappeared.

"Who was that?" Trini asked out loud, reading everyone's minds.

"Better question is, are they here to help us or hurt us," Zack pointed out.

"I don't know," Tommy admitted. "We need to go talk to Zordon."

* * *

Avalon thought that everything that Zordon and Alpha had told her was a joke. A complete and utter joke. What reason did she have to believe anything that anybody said? She was smarter than that. She knew that you couldn't trust anyone other than your family, it was what she had lived by for years and it wasn't going to stop now.

Who would fall for it? Who would believe that by holding a technologically advanced belt buckle up to the sky and calling out a dinosaur name, it would actually turned her into a super hero?

Wishful thinking.

But she was in for a nasty surprise when it turned out that they were right. She had just left the Youth Center when Avalon had that familiar light-headed feeling and had been forced back to the command center. What else would you call it when you were taken against your will? A part of her knew that she couldn't resist, that there was some sort of power in the transportation that could be controlled, no matter how hard she tried to fight it.

Zordon and Alpha had shown her the plight the other rangers were in. Sensing her hesitation, Zordon insisted that she go and help them out. But Avalon refused, point blank. Zordon's and Alpha's insistene becamse too much and she agreed only to get them to shut up. Doing what she had been advised she was surprised when she transformed into the Orange Power Ranger.

But the truth of the matter was…she had no clue what she was doing.

She never strategically fought before. She only did what was instinctively shot through her mind, dealing as much damage as she could..and that was against other teenagers. Not mutant monsters. Avalon was teleported to the rangers and the Bonbon Bomber, but distanced herself.

As soon as she saw that the monster could be defeated, she teleported away.

She didn't ask for any of it, it wasn't her business, and she wasn't going to bother.

It was just a one time thing.

* * *

"Now that's the person that we could use on our side," Rita said, pushing her telescope away from her. She had been watching Avalon on Earth while she talked to her friends and then teleported off to be a Power Ranger. She had watched her whole conversation with Zordon and Alpha and felt nothing but glee when she realized that Avalon didn't want to help them. "Someone who doesn't want the responsibility."

She turned around and walked to hers and Zedd's bedroom, where he was snoring loudly in his bed. "Zedd, wake up!" She reached out and shook his shoulder.

Zedd was awakened almost instantly. "What do you want, motor mouth?" He demanded. "Can't you see that I'm trying to sleep?"

"Can't you see that I'm trying to take over the world?" Rita shot back. "I found someone that I'm sure is going to help us."

"This isn't another plan of making a new ranger is it?" Zedd's growl was deep in his chest. "That plan failed last time. Miserably, I must add." If he could smile, he would have nothing but a large smirk on his face as Rita openly glared back at him. A low laugh rumbled in his chest.

"This time, we're using someone that _doesn't _want to be a ranger," Rita said, immediately capturing Zedd's interest. "We could use her as a secret weapon against him and the other rangers; we could get into his command center and take it over."

"Interesting." Zedd got out of bed and followed Rita over to her telescope. He looked through it and saw Avalon as well. He turned to Rita, a bit skeptical. "This is the one that can help us?" He asked.

"Positive!" Rita replied and gave an evil smile. "Zeddy, you and I are one step closer to dominating the world!"

* * *

"So how much homework do you have tonight?" Avalon asked as she opened the door to the apartment and followed Bailey inside. She handed Bailey her backpack before closing the door behind her, dropping her own backpack to the ground.

"Not much," Bailey replied with a shrug as she walked over to the couch and sat down. She pushed her glasses up her nose and adjusted her long ponytail. "Just some math and stuff. In science, we're going over natural disasters." She snorted as she rolled her eyes. "Like any idiot doesn't know how to figure out the trajectory pattern of a tropical storm system right before it makes a projected landfall."

Avalon looked up from the stack of mail that she was going through and gave her sister a pointed look. "In English Bay," she prompted.

"A hurricane," Bailey replied.

"So why couldn't you just say that?" Avalon returned her gaze to the mail. "Instead of confusing me with all of your science mumbo jumbo."

"You're only mad as a cut snake because I'm smarter than you," Bailey teased. She then smiled smugly. "It's not my fault that I got the brains and you got the clumsy gene." Avalon ignored her sister, tossing the pile of mail down onto the coffee table. "Nothing from Mum or Dad?" Bailey asked dejectedly.

"Of course not," Avalon replied, looking at her sister s if she were crazy. "There's never mail from them." She nodded over to Bailey's backpack. "Get your homework done and then you can watch some telly."

"Whatever you say, Av," Bailey emptied out the rest of her backpack onto the coffee table. "But it's not my fault that this school stuff is so easy. I wish they would put me in the advanced class, but _no, _our credits back in Oz didn't all transfer."

Avalon shook her head as she walked into the kitchen and started to get dinner ready for the two of them. It had been only the two of them for a long time and while she was used to it, she wondered if it was something that she did that caused her father to send them out to California. _Of course it wasn't my fault that when we got here no one was there to pick us up. It was my smooth talking that got us to stay in a place like this. _Avalon tried not to dwell too long on the past as she gathered up the pots and pans that were going to be needed to make dinner for that night.

The abysmal state of the cupboards shocked her. When was the last time they had gone grocery shopping? _No wonder the guys were so adamant about making that hit, all of us are running low on cash._ The bread that sat in the cupboard was slightly hardened; it had probably been there for weeks and the milk in the fridge gave off a slightly odd smell; a couple of days past expiration. As bad as that was, that was the only thing there was to eat in the house apart from the spaghetti sauce and noodles she managed to find. There was no oatmeal, no cereal, no chips, no fruit, and certainly no candy; she couldn't even prepare a simple meal for the next day if she didn't think of something.

There was no getting around it.

She had to get some cash fast.

Avalon picked up a large pot and turned to the sink, turning the water on. She sighed as she watched the pot get filled. It was probably only a matter of time until the water and electricity got turned off, not if she couldn't get out there and actually get some work done with her friends. She had been interrupted by something associated with power rangers twice already and she was damned if that was going to happen again. Hers and Bailey's lives had already been disrupted enough; they didn't need it to be disrupted any further.

Avalon reached forward and turned off the water before picking up the pot and putting it on the stove. She turned on the water underneath before going to the equally bare pantry and grabbing a bottle of vegetable oil. She squirted some in the water and turned the burner on, briefly noticing that Bailey had turned the TV on and was starting to watch some kids show. She wondered if Bailey knew how much trouble that they were in, it was obvious that she was smart, math and science being her forte, but she wasn't socially inept or anything that came with the social stereotype of being smart. She probably knew that things could be better with them, but she never told her big sister about it. Avalon just hoped that she was doing a good job taking care of Bailey and gave her everything that she needed.

_Not that I have much to worry about, I just have to complete a hit and then we'll be rolling in dough for months. _Avalon then took out another pot and put it on the second burner, before opening a jar of spaghetti sauce and dumping it into the pan before placing the jar in the sink. Avalon turned on the burner underneath it and turned back to the counter to open the box of spaghetti noodles. Only one box that was plenty for the two of them.

"How's dinner coming? OOH! SPAGHETTI!"

Avalon jumped at Bailey's excited cry, dropping the spaghetti noodles to the floor. She shot a glare over at her sister as she bent down and started to pick them up. Bailey giggled to herself as she walked over and helped her sister. "Bay! You nearly gave me a heart attack, you little boofhead!" Avalon scolded. She let out a huff, blowing her dark hair out of her equally dark eyes. "Yes, spaghetti. I know that you love it, and I thought they'd make a nice dinner tonight." She sniffed. "You can't tell me that I'm not a good sister to you."

"Jeez, why don't we just go ahead and light some candles, Av?" Bailey asked sarcastically.

"Shut up and pick up the noodles," Avalon said, though she was smiling a little bit. Once the food was cleaned off of the floor, the two ran them under some water in the sink and then kept them on the counter, waiting for the water to boil. "Don't you have some homework to do?"

She knew that Bailey had already finished it. That was the only reason that she was in the kitchen in the first place, bugging her.

"I told you," Bailey crossed her arms over her chest as he leaned against the counter. "The stuff is too easy. It didn't take me too long."

"Whatever, Whiz," Avalon replied and smirked as Bailey pouted.

"You _know_ I hate it when you call me that," Bailey practically whined, acting more like a five year old than an eleven year old.

"I know," Avalon replied. "That's why I do it." Her pager went off as she pulled it off of her pocket, looking at the number that came up. "That's Chase, I have to get going," she said, quickly walking back across the apartment to pick up her leather jacket, which she had discarded over the arm of the couch.

"You're not going to make me eat dinner alone, are you?" Bailey asked, following her.

"'Course not," Avalon shrugged into her jacket and adjusted the collar. "I'll be back before you know it and then we can eat together while watching Wheel of Fortune or something." She checked her pockets, looking through her wallet, before turning to leave. "Just make sure that you turn off the stove when everything's done."

"Wait," Bailey had moved forward and now had her hands on Avalon's belt. "What's this?" She turned Avalon's morpher back and forth as she studied it. "I've never seen a belt buckle like this before." She lifted her head and looked right into Avalon's eyes, almost as if she was accusing her of something. "Where'd you get this?" She asked.

"I got it from a friend," Avalon replied vaguely. Bailey continued to look at her. "I'm telling the truth, someone gave it to me."

Bailey was silent for a few more moments. "All right," She lifted her fist and Avalon bumped it with hers. "Just be-"

"Careful?" Avalon finished her sister's sentence before she could. Bailey nodded. "I always am, you dag." She reached out and mussed Bailey's hair. "I'll be back soon." She went over to the apartment and slipped out the door.

* * *

"Yo, Pinkie's finally here," Chase called as Avalon walked into the park and over to her friends. "We can finally get going."

"I'm surprised you haven't run away yet," Avalon replied coolly, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know, since those freaks scared you away so easily last time." She added with a smirk. Chase turned to her with a glare and opened his mouth to say something, but the boy with black hair, Skye, stopped him.

"Dudes, we need to get going now or they'll get back before we can make a hit," Skye said shortly, looking back and forth from Chase to Avalon before looking at the three others that were with them. There was a moment of silence and then Chase nodded.

"You're right Skye," Chase agreed. He cleared his throat and then addressed the group. "We need to get in, get the stuff, and get out. If you find something that you think will work too, don't stop and ask, just grab it and go. Got me?"

"Got it," Avalon replied with the others.

She looked around the park once more, half expecting the Z-putties to pop up again, but then turned her attention back to the task at hand and followed Chase and Skye, as they walked in front of her, falling into step with the rest of the group as they left the park. It was only a twenty minute walk, not that far away, but they had to move quickly. Even being stopped for a moment could ruin the timing of their whole plan. It had never happened before, there were a couple of close calls, but it hadn't happened. And it wasn't going to start now.

They finally managed to get to their destination, a mini mansion. It looked like there was no one home, there didn't seem to be any security put up either. The neighborhood was pretty safe, there weren't any burglaries and most of the neighbors seemed to get along perfectly fine. That's what they had found out from their research from the past couple of days, tonight was the night that it was all going to pay off. Chase darted forward across the front lawn and then disappeared behind the house. When he came back, his eyes were shinning with excitement.

"All's clear," he hissed. "Let's go."

Avalon, Skye, and the others followed Chase around the back of the house and onto a slope that was sitting next to a window that most likely led to the basement. Chase pulled a flat object out of his pocket and moved towards the window, wedging it between the bottom of the window and the windowsill. With a few jiggles of the object, the window popped open and Chase pushed it up.

"Alright, Pinkie," he turned to Avalon. "Get inside and open the front door for the rest of us," he studied the window. "It looks like you're the only one that's small enough to fit through there."

"What about Summer?" She turned to the only other girl that was in the group. "She's just as tiny as I am."

"I don't want to risk her screwing this up," Chase replied evenly. "Now get going," He nodded his head towards the window again.

Avalon let out a quiet sigh before moving forwards and sliding through the window, feet first. Her feet hit the floor with a light thud. She looked around as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She could see a ping-pong table in one corner as well as big TVs and all of the latest gaming equipment. She would have been impressed and a little envious if she had the time.

Avalon turned on her heel and hurried up from the basement towards the front door. She ignored the pictures of the family that lived there that were along the walls. If she stopped to look at even just one of them, she would probably let her feelings, or worse, her guilt get in the way and she would scrap the whole thing. They were trained early on, not to let their feelings get in the way and the only time you were picked to go into a house was if you had proved that you could handle it.

Avalon went over to the front door and unlocked it, pulling it open. She let out a quick whistle and then two long ones, the signal that everything was safe. She and Skye then headed up the large staircase as Chase, Summer, and the two others that were with them stayed on the bottom floor. Avalon and Skye went to the master bedroom and started to poke around, opening up closets and drawers as quickly as they could. Once they found something that they thought was particularly valuable they shoved it into their pockets. Avalon had found a Rolex, a couple of rings, and a gold necklace.

She was holding it up to the light, studying it, when she heard a slight thud from downstairs and then hushed voices. She turned to Skye, who had stopped and listened as well. That wasn't normal. Avalon quickly put the necklace into her pocket and closed the dresser drawer before bolting from the bedroom, Skye was right behind her. The two hurried down the stairs, freezing on the second to last step when they saw Chase standing in the doorway to the living room. He was slowly shaking his head, his eyes going over to the front door.

Avalon looked over and saw a dark shadow through the windows that lined the front door. She could hear mumbling voices as well and her eyes widened.

Whoever owned the house was home.

If they didn't move soon, they were going to be caught.

Chase disappeared from the living room and Avalon could hear him, Summer, and the other two hurrying towards the basement to get back out the window they came in from. Skye grabbed onto Avalon's arm and the two turned and went back up the stairs and to the master bedroom. Avalon opened up one of the windows and climbed out, ducking as she shuffled across the roof, Skye right behind her. They stayed out of sight as they heard the front door open and the coupe go inside. They waited for the door to close before they continued along the roof until it sloped towards the ground. Avalon scooted over to the edge and gauged the distance to the ground; it wasn't that far, but she still didn't want to risk significantly injuring herself.

"Psst, over here!"

Avalon turned and saw that Skye was a few meters away from her, reaching out to grab onto the branch of a tree that was sitting by the house. Avalon hurried over to his side and waited for Skye to get down far enough so that Avalon could climb into the tree as well. The two of them quickly moved to the ground and hurried after their friends, who were already blasting down the sidewalk, running as fast as they could. They didn't stop until they reached the park.

"Is everyone here?" Summer asked when they stopped to catch their breath.

Avalon nodded as she placed her hands on her hips. She tilted her head back and looked at the sky as she took in some deep breaths. The stars twinkled peacefully back at her. "Everyone's here, mate," she replied.

"Good," Chase grinned. "Let me check out the stuff." He instructed and everyone emptied their pockets. He started to bounce on his toes with glee. "We got a good haul this time." He put his own stuff back into his pockets. "We'll meet up again this weekend, no need to draw too much attention to ourselves."

"Right."

"Later."

"See ya."

They all went their separate ways to go home.

_Just remember, _Avalon took the necklace out of her pocket and looked at it for moment before putting it away. _You're doing this for Bailey._

Avalon looked at her watch; it was time for her to get home and have dinner with her waiting sister.

* * *

**A/N: **Just like last time, some of the chapter was the same as it was before, but there were some other parts added. I hope you guys liked it.

**XoxMountain-GirlxoX: **I'm glad that the story is pacing better now, that's what I was hoping. More things will be changed as the chapters go on, so I hope those turn out good too. :)

Um, do you guys want to know the pairings ahead of time, or do you want to wait to see it all unfold? BTW, I have a poll on my profile for it as well. ;)

-**Avalon**


	3. Chapter 3: Power, Responsibility

**Chapter 03**

* * *

_"After school we're all going to go to the command center to figure out who the Orange Ranger is,"_

_"Oh, Avalon, we thought that you were sick,"_

_"Zordon, what's going on with the Orange ranger?"_

_"But the time is not right. As it stands, we're not sure if we can trust their power."_

_"That was an insignificant oversight," _

_"We just want the recognition that we deserve!"_

Startled, Avalon woke up, her breathing in short, quick gasps. Her dark brown eyes darted around her bedroom, looking for the source of what had woken her from her slumber. She sat up, listening carefully. No footsteps, no sound that would indicate that there was someone else in the apartment. The TV wasn't on, so she knew that Bailey had woken up to watch some sort of documentary about who knows what.

Running her hands over her face, Avalon scooted back so she was resting against her head board. She thought hard about what it was that could have woken her. She didn't even remember her dream or anything that was said…but she, she could have sworn that she felt something forcing her to wake up. Avalon brushed it off, she was a light sleeper as it was, so any noise could wake her up from a deep sleep it in seconds.

Sighing, she looked over at the clock. It was only an hour before she usually got up, so it wasn't a big deal. Reaching over to turn off her alarm as she was going to be up anyway, Avalon jumped when the clock seemed to melt in her hand. Her eyes widened with shock as she pulled her hand back, staring at the remains of the electronic. Pulling back the covers on her bed, she climbed out and moved to her desk to get a closer look, turning on the lamp.

It wasn't smoking, but it did look like it had been made out of soft clay and someone had just slammed their fist on it, squishing it out of its original shape. Avalon ran a hand over her forehead. _What the-? _Avalon turned away from the clock and moved towards her closet to grab her clothes, but tripped over her shoes, falling to the ground. Her head hit the corner of her dresser as she fell. But she didn't feel any pain, more like a slight bump. Confused, Avalon reached up and felt her forehead_, _expecting a gash. Instead, she found a tiny bump, about the size of a small bug bite, and no blood.

"Weird." Avalon went into her closet and picked out a tank top and shorts to change into before grabbing her running shoes and pulling them on. She then picked up her key and placed it on a bracelet and slid it into her wrist. She quietly left the apartment, hoping not to wake up Bailey. Locking the door behind her, before starting to jog down the street.

She started off at her normal pace, but frowned, feeling that she was a bit sluggish going too slow. So she picked up the speed to what a light jog would be, and had the same feeling. She was going too slow. Confusion slowly ebbed away to a smile as Avalon picked up her speed, running faster and faster down the street. Houses and trees blurred past her as she continued to run, increasing her speed. She ran around the block five times in the amount of time it would take her to run it once.

Avalon slowed to a walk, barely out of breath, the biggest smile on her face.

It was the first time she had smiled in a long time.

* * *

"So we're all agreed?" Tommy asked in a low voice as he leaned towards Kimberly, Jason, Billy, Zack, and Trini.

The six of them were sitting in their seats for English class. Before class started, they were all planning on what they were going to do about the Orange Ranger. They had to know whether or not the new ranger was a friend or foe. The last time a new ranger had been added, it was because Tommy had taken over the power of light and that was needed to help them defeat Rita and Zedd.

So what could a new ranger be needed for? Weren't they enough already? If Zordon and Alpha were worried about the new ranger, was it really worth it? The power rangers had seen so much in their fight against Rita and Zedd; they weren't sure what to believe or what to think.

"After school we're all going to go to the command center to figure out who the Orange Ranger is," Tommy said. His eyes scanned the room. He lowered his voice even further, who knew who was listening to them? They had been careful to keep their identities a secret this long, they didn't want it to get blown when they were at the start of a new challenge. "For all we know, it's another evil ranger that Rita could have some up with."

"If that were the case, wouldn't Alpha and Zordon have some sort of sensor that could detect that sort of thing?" Zack's face was the epitome of worry, though his body language didn't say so. He leaned back in his chair, the back two legs being the only ones that rested on the floor.

"Not if they're using a human," Billy pointed out. He pushed his glasses up his nose. "They probably only have the capabilities of detecting life forms that run on pure evil or Rita's magic. If, like they did with Tommy, they used a normal human, they probably couldn't detect it."

"But if they're using another human, there's the chance that they have him or her under a spell," Jason reminded them. He spread out his hands. "We don't know for sure, but we can't take that risk." He looked around at each of his friends. "Like Tommy said, after school, we're going to the command center."

"No problem," Kimberly agreed with a nod. "We'll be there."

"Hey look!" Bulk and Skull entered the classroom, immediately locking their eyes on the six rangers. "The geek patrol is together again." His upper lip curled as he and Skull sauntered over to them. His eyes moved over each of them. "Where's the other geek?" He asked.

"You call so many people geeks, Bulk, who could we possibly know who you're referring to this time?" Trini asked with a light roll of her eyes.

"The other one," Skull spoke up. "You know, the new kid." He pointed over at Jason. "The one that he annoys." He burst out laughing as Bulk smirked over at the rangers, who rolled their eyes.

"We don't know where she is," Tommy replied with a smile. "But I can almost guarantee that she wouldn't want to go to the homecoming dance with either of you two, so it's better not to ask."

Bulk's smirk faded and he glared at Tommy. Tommy smirked, knowing that he had struck a nerve with the larger teenager. Bulk narrowed his eyes at Tommy in silent warning before he and Skull moved away from the rangers and sat down in their own seats.

"Where is Avalon anyway?" Kimberly asked, grabbing everyone's attention. "She wasn't at her locker this morning and I didn't see het at lunch either." She twirled her pink pen around her fingers, her eyebrows coming together. "You don't think that anything happened to her, do you?"

"If there was a monster attack we would know about it," Trini reminded her. "She's probably just sick or something." She thought for a moment. "If that's the case, we could find out her address and bring her flowers, to cheer her up."

"Yeah," Kimberly smiled. "I like that idea."

"You're forgetting that she just moved here," Zack said. "Why is it that whenever someone is out of school their first thought is that they're sick?" He shrugged. "She could be skipping the day to unpack some more stuff. If I could use being a new student in school as an excuse not to go for the first couple of days I'd take it."

"The chances of her being sick are very high though," Billy said. "What with allergies going around and the pollen count going up. Plus there's the fact that with Rita's monsters there is the pollution aspect that they could create, especially when they destroy certain buildings."

"You can bring her flowers after we go visit Zordon," Tommy said. He looked up and smiled as Ms. Appleby walked into the room, her arms laden with books and the lesson plan for that day. The other rangers moved to their seats and got settled as Ms. Appleby started class.

"Good afternoon, class," She greeted them cheerfully. "I hope that you all got your homework done last night, because today we're going to be starting a new project." She clasped her hands in front of her. "The idea of the project is that you're going to be put into groups of three and you are going to take a topic and research it for a month. Any topic you want, and you're going to have two and a half weeks to work on it. At the end of those two and a half weeks, you're going to give a thirty minute presentation on it in front of the class."

"Ugh, thirty minutes?" Skull cried, his face falling. "That's like…_forever_!"

"It's only forever when we have to listen to you talk," Kimberly replied with a smile, causing the others in the class to laugh.

"And before you try to split yourselves into your own groups," Ms. Appleby said with a pointed stare at her students, who lightly groaned at the idea. "I already have them chosen for you." She turned and picked up a sheet of paper off of the desk. "First group is Jason, Kimberly, and Trini."

"All right!" Kimberly cheered, giving Jason a high-five before beaming over at Trini.

"Next group is Bulk, Skull, and Tommy."

Tommy tried hard not to make a face as he heard Bulk and Skull make snorting sounds behind him. The last thing that he needed was to have to work with them for two and a half weeks on a project that they would probably force him to work on when he didn't want to. He was going to try hard to stay civil to them, but their antics would get on anyone's nerves at the drop of a hat.

"And next we have Billy, Zack, and Avalon." Ms. Appleby lifted her head and looked around the room, her eyebrows lowering. "Oh dear, has anyone seen Avalon today?"

"We think she's sick," Trini said helpfully. "Kimberly and I were planning on brining her flowers after school. We could bring her homework assignment, too."

"Thanks very nice of you, Trini," Ms. Appleby said. "Just come up to my desk after class to get it so I don't forget." She read off the list of the rest of the students that were going to be in groups before she allowed the class time to work on it. She settled down at her desk as the students moved their desks and chairs around so that they could form their groups to discuss what they were going to do for their projects.

"Man, this is going to be a great project," Zack said, his eyes shining with excitement as he turned to Billy.

"Affirmative," Billy agreed. "We can choose our own topic, so we have a plethora of options to choose from." He grabbed a notebook and flipped it open to write down some topics that they could decide on later. "For example, we could research the history of dance-"

"Yeah, let's do that!" Zack declared. "You could the actual presentation on it, and I could bust my moves to add in a visual effect."

"That's an idea," Billy laughed, noting Zack's enthusiasm. "But you also have to take into consideration what style or era of dance that you want to focus on. As well, you also have to determine whether or not you want to talk about when it was first invented, or when it's documented first use was. There's a lot that you have to think about for a topic."

"So," Zack gave a sheepish smile. "Couldn't you just come up with that and I bust out my moves?" He laughed and lightly slapped Billy on the arm. "I'm kidding, Billy. Don't worry; I'll make sure to do an equal amount of work for this project."

"Well, we have to pick a topic, and the only way we can do that is if we get Avalon's approval on it." Billy reminded him.

"Yeah, easier said than done." Zack agreed.

The final bell of the day rang and everyone got up to gather their things. The rangers went to go put their stuff in their lockers and made sure that they had everything they needed for that night before they walked out the front of the school, nearly bumping into Avalon on the way.

"Sorry," she said in an unconvincing tone as she back peddled a few steps. "Didn't see you there."

"Oh, Avalon, we thought that you were sick," Trini said. She turned and started to dig in her backpack for the school work that she had gathered. Avalon frowned, glancing at the ground. She turned back to Trini when she held papers out to her."We got your homework for you." Avalon took it, barely looking it over, before shoving it haphazardly into her backpack. "Kim and I were going to bring you some flowers."

"I'm allergic to flowers," Avalon said, sliding her hands into the back pockets of her black jeans. "The pollen. It's a wonder that I can go anywhere in the spring." She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder, looking up at everyone. "If that was all, I need to-"

"Oh, you didn't tell her about the project," Tommy said, nudging Zack on the arm.

"Right, the project," Zack replied. He smiled down at Avalon, his hands on his backpack straps. "You, Billy, and I are going to be working on a project together. Any topic we want and it's a thirty minute presentation at the end, we have two and a half weeks."

"Great," Avalon gave a half smile, her eyes flitting over Billy an then Zack. "Smurf and Twinkle Toes, this sounds like it's going to be fun." She dropped her gaze, looking at her watch. "Nothing personal, but I have to go pick up my-"

"Avalon!" Bailey walked over to her sister, looking more than annoyed. She stopped by her sister's side, placing her hands on her hips. "I've been waiting for you for twenty minutes. What happened?" She turned her head, seeming to notice everyone else and then blushed, looking at her feet.

"Is this your sister?" Jason asked, pointing at her.

"Unfortunately," Avalon replied and laughed when Bailey reached out and punched her on the arm. "This is Bailey. Bay, this is Jason, Tommy, Zack, Kimberly, Trini, and Billy." She turned to Bailey and spoke to her in a condescending tone. "And I was just coming to get you, but they were giving me my homework. You're the one that says that homework is important."

"It is," Bailey agreed. "But so is, um, _your flesh and blood_!"

"She's so cute!" Kimberly said with a laugh.

"You wouldn't think so if you had to listen to her go on and on about math and science and stuff all the time." Avalon rolled her eyes.

"Oh!" Billy turned and smiled down at Bailey, who smiled shyly in return. "You're an enthusiast of science too?"

"Oh, yes," Bailey pushed some f her loose hair behind her ear. "It's my favorite subject. I just love it so much. I mean, there's always so much that you can explore and create and discover. I love it." She reached up and grabbed onto her backpack straps, lightly rocking back and forth.

Avalon tilted her head to the side as she turned to her sister. "Are you okay? You seem kinda shaky."

"I'm fine," Bailey said quickly. She then lowered her voice, turning her gaze to the ground. "Can we go please?"

"Go ahead," Zack said, waving them off. "We have stuff that we need to do with our parents," he said slowly, looking over at Billy and the others, hoping that they would catch on to his hint. "So we can start the project later, you know, coming up with a project topic and everything."

"O…kay," Avalon said slowly. She raised her eyebrows. "Whatever." She turned to Bailey. "I'm telling you, around here, these people are a few sheep short of the station."

"It's just you." Bailey patted her sister on the arm before putting her hands on her sister's backpack and pushing her away. "Now come on, we have stuff to do at home." Avalon turned her head back and glared at Bailey. She thought quickly. "Last minute unpacking and stuff. We need to get it done or we'll never be able to go out."

Avalon narrowed her eyes at her sister before she shook her head and walked off with her.

"Ok, you guys ready to go?" Tommy asked, looking around before leading his friends around the side of the school. "We need to get some answers from Zordon." He checked to be sure that no one was following them and then nodded at his friends.

They nodded back and then all grabbed onto their morphers and transported to the Command Center.

* * *

"Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi, rangers, what are you doing here?" Alpha cried as the Rangers appeared at his side. "There isn't any disturbance on Earth."

"We know Alpha, we just need to talk," Jason said. He turned and looked up at Zordon. "Zordon, what's going on with the Orange ranger?" he asked. "They helped us out in that battle about the Bonbon Bomber, but they disappeared after the battle ended."

"Yeah, is it someone that we can trust?" Tommy took a step forward. "Or is it another evil ranger that Rita has cooked up to try and make it harder for us?"

"Rangers, when the time comes, I'll be able to tell you everything that you need to know about the Orange ranger," Zordon said patiently. "But the time is not right. As it stands, we're not sure if we can trust their power."

"So it _is_ someone being controlled by Rita." Trini said.

"Not this time, Trini," Zordon said. "The Orange ranger is someone that can be of a great deal of help to you once they decide whether or not they want to take the responsibility. Each of you, as Power Rangers, had taken that responsibility of saving the world no matter what gets in the way. Alpha and I trust you with your powers."

"But with this new ranger, we know that the powers that were given are right," Alpha explained. "The powers chose the orange ranger, but the orange ranger hasn't chosen the powers. We don't know if they would abandon you in battle or fight bravely by your sides."

"We don't know if Rita will take the orange ranger's doubts and use it for her own gain or use it against the orange ranger, specifically as an inside attack against us." Zordon agreed.

"But can't you tell us who the orange ranger is?" Kimberly took a step closer to Tommy. She looked up at him before turning back to Zordon. "Maybe we can help him or her decide whether or not it's something that they should do. We know that it might not be for everyone." She looked around at her friends. "We've had to sacrifice a lot and risk the doubt that we have in each of us to take these powers so maybe we can help."

"I'm afraid not Kimberly," Zordon advised. "We can't risk the lack of trust in the ranger when there is a chance that you could be hurt as well." He turned his gaze to Billy. "I need you to make a new communicator."

"What for?" Billy asked.

His hands twitched as his sides, like they usually did when it came to the prospect of inventing something new. But this was a different case. He would like to revisit the idea of the communicator, to see if he could improve on it as well as see what else could be done to help the rangers even further. But he wasn't exactly sure why it would be made. He had just said that the new orange ranger wasn't someone that they could trust fully, not yet.

So why would they make that decision of all times?

Why wasn't he asked to do it before?

"We would like for you to create a new sort of communicator to have as a back-up just in case the ones that you have now fail." Zordon replied. "In essence, a backup communicator that can still be used if the power grid fails. You never know if Rita or Zedd will find a way to disrupt the communication that you all have between us as your morphers."

"I'll get on it as soon as possible," Billy said with a determined nod.

"Are you sure that you can't tell us anything about the Orange Ranger?" Tommy asked. "It might be easier to monitor the person if we did know who it was." He wasn't going to give up on this. He had been taken over to be an evil ranger before, and he wasn't going to let that happen to anyone else. If the others could save him from Rita's spell, then he could help whomever else the power had chosen.

"I'm sorry Tommy, but right now, we can't let you know anything about the identity of the Orange ranger." Zordon said.

"It's for the safety of _you _rangers and the Orange ranger as well," Alpha pleaded. "Please understand."

"We understand, Alpha, don't worry," Trini reached out and lightly placed her hand on Alpha's shoulder. "We just wish that there was a more proactive way to help."

"Once Billy gets that communicator finished, it'll be a great help," Zordon said firmly. "Now, please go and get some rest."

"All right." Jason nodded and the six friends transported out of the command center.

Alpha turned back to Zordon. "Zordon, I really hope that the decision that we've made is what's best for the Rangers."

"We won't know until we see how future events unfold, Alpha," Zordon said. "In the mean time, we need to watch the other rangers and Avalon carefully to see how things progress with them individually and together. It could be what determines whether or not the power will ultimately take Avalon on as its commander."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then we're going to be in grave danger."

* * *

"Are you going to go out with your friends again today?" Bailey asked, running a brush though her hair. Avalon's upper lip curled as she stood at the counter, pouring a box of cereal into a bowl. She made that one facial movement, but she didn't reply. "Don't you think that you should take a break? You're going to get caught soon."

"I'm too good to get caught, Bay," Avalon dismissed her, turning to the refrigerator to pull out a jug of milk.

Bailey let out a short sigh as she put down her brush and walked over to her sister. She rested her arms on the counter. "No one's too good to get caught," She said in a low voice. "Why do you think that there are jails filled with people?" She clapped her hands together as she spoke her next four words. "Because. They. Got. Caught." Avalon shrugged and pushed one of the two bowls over to Bailey before picking up her own bowl and walking around the counter and into the living room. She curled up on the couch before turning on the TV, bringing a spoonful of cereal up to her mouth. "Why are you doing this, Av?"

"I told you a million times," Avalon mumbled around a mouthful of cereal. She swallowed and picked up another spoonful before continuing. "It's so we have money."

"So why don't you get, I don't know, a job, boofhead!" Bailey shook her head. "You know, like normal people do."

"I'm surprised it's taken you this long to notice that I'm not normal," Avalon replied with a slight eye roll. "I hate to play by the rules and I don't like to be told what to do." She shrugged. "And that's also why I won't get a normal job. You can't get a job without experience and you can't get experience without a job. Besides, then I'd have to worry about helping other people and people get on my nerves so…"

"So why do you still stick around Chase an all of those other creeps?" Bailey finally started to eat her own breakfast.

"Because they're my friends," Avalon replied after a moment.

"I'm sorry…" Bailey tilted her head to the side. "Aren't you the one that said that you preferred to be alone? How can you have friends if you're a loner?"

"Well, because…" Avalon paused as she about it. She frowned as she dropped her spoon back into her bowl. "You see…I….it' sort of like….shut up!" She viciously shoved another mouthful of cereal into her mouth, keeping her eyes on the TV. "You're too young to understand."

"And yet, I'm smarter than you," Bailey replied with a smirk. It then faded as she looked down into her cereal. "I know that you're doing this for me, but…I don't want you to get in trouble."

"I won't," Avalon said firmly. "Eat your breakfast."

The sisters continued to eat while they watched early morning cartoons. When they were done, Avalon took both of their bowls and put them in the sink, filling the sink with water to let them soak. She then went up to her room and grabbed her backpack and morpher. Avalon stared at the morpher in her hands for a long time.

"Why do you keep bringing this with you if you don't want it?" She muttered to herself. Avalon moved her thumb over the power coin that was in the center, reveling at the gold texture and the raised bumps that created a picture of a stegosaurus. "Why would they choose you if you're the last person on the planet that even qualifies for that position?"

She shook her head before sliding her backpack onto her shoulders and heading back out into the main sitting area of the room. Bailey was sitting on the coffee table, looking at a picture that was in her hands. Avalon slowed her pace when she recognized the picture.

"I don't mean to sound harsh sis, but I wish that you would stop looking at that," Avalon said as she walked over and gently lifted the picture from her sister's hands. She tossed it haphazardly onto the couch.

"But don't you miss Mum and Dad?" Bailey asked, turning her soulful, dark brown eyes up to Avalon's.

"Not really," Avalon replied, looking at her watch.

"Liar," Bailey accused.

"You don't know when I lie, so don't even try giving me that crap." Avalon smiled and lightly cuffed Bailey on the back of the head. "Come on or we're going to be late for school." Bailey let out a sigh as she stood up from the coffee table and followed Avalon to the front door of their apartment.

_"_You're not going to forget me again today, are you?" Bailey watched her sister carefully as the two stepped outside and Avalon turned back to lock the door.

"That was an insignificant oversight," Avalon replied, sounding like a robot. "To quote you," she added before turning and walking down the stairwell and out the lobby. "I promise it won't happen again." She held out her pinky finger and Bailey wrapped hers around Avalon's. "No worries. You know that I'm good at keeping my promises."

"I know," Bailey said. She looked at her feet, pushing her glasses up her nose as she walked alongside her sister. She had to walk a bit faster to keep up with Avalon's quick stride. "You promised that you would take care of me after what happened with Mum and Dad and you have." She tilted her head back to look up at the sky. "I just wish that you had a better way of doing it."

_You and me both, kid. _Avalon didn't say anything in reply.

* * *

"Open!" Avalon cried, jimmying her locker door. She groaned as her armful of books fell to the ground. "Great, clumsy as ever." She sighed before resting her forehead on the door.

Her day had progressively done downhill as soon as she had gotten to school. She realized that she had forgotten to grab a paper off of her desk that morning and now had to get a whole letter grade off when she turned it in tomorrow, her locker door got jammed that morning so she had to carry her books around all over the school (that was more of a nuisance than it being heavy), her teachers seemed to want her to be more active so they kept calling on her in class to answer questions. And, to top it all off, she couldn't help but feel as if she had been watched and followed all day. Sure, Jason and them were in most of her classes, most of them time they weren't all together, and their mere presence, which Avalon couldn't explain, annoyed her to no end. But it wasn't because of that.

She had felt like she was being watched for the past couple of days and now it was starting to make her even more of a paranoid freak than she already was.

"Watch it geek!"

Avalon looked up to see Bulk shove a kid out of his way before grabbing onto the lunch sack that he was holding on to. Skull stood at Bulk's side, chewing on a piece of gum as Bulk opened up the brown bag of lunch and looked inside. He then lifted his head and glared at the kid that he had shoved.

"Next time, no mayo," he said before stalking down the hallway again.

"Hey, Bulk, right?" Avalon called as he got closer to her. "D'you think you could scare my locker door into opening?" She asked, backing away from it. She would have tried using her newfound strength to rip the door open, but didn't want to bring attention to herself. No more than the attention she already had. Avalon gave a light laugh. "You've done such a beauty job with everyone else; I figured that it would work on inanimate objects too."

"No problem," Bulk cracked his knuckles before he moved over to her locker door. He punched it once and the door sprang open.

"Thanks," Avalon heaved her backpack inside before grabbing her lunch bag. She looked up when Skull appeared at her side, holding onto her books. "Thanks for that too," she took them and paced them into her locker before slamming the door shut. "Now I know who to call next time I need a hero." Her sarcasm was almost lost to the urge to laugh at the irony.

"That's Bulkie," Skull said with a proud smile. "A helper to all."

"Watch it, you might ruin my reputation," Bulk shot back.

"Well, we wouldn't want that to happen." Avalon turned on her heel and started to walk towards the cafeteria. "You know what? You two remind me of some friends of mine," she said slowly. "But not as menacing, no offense." She held up a hand. "Every time someone sees my friend, they know that shit is about to go down." _And that's mostly true. I haven't seen Chase go up to someone and them not immediately be suspicious of him._

"Sounds like my kind of guy," Bulk said with a half smile. "Does he go to school around here?"

"Nope, he doesn't go to school, he dropped out," Avalon replied, keeping her gaze straight ahead. "He works in an auto shop not too far from here." Avalon slowly frowned. _He hasn't been working there long? Did he start working there to keep an eye on me?_

"There are times that Bulkie wishes that he could drop out." Skull grinned. "But he's too scared about what his mommy will say." He laughed loudly and Bulk pulled back a fist, warning Skull to keep his mouth shut. "Sorry," Skull apologized quickly.

Avalon sat down at the nearest empty lunch table and was surprised when Bulk and Skull sat down with her. "Don't you have your own friends to sit with?" She asked. "No offense, mate, but I'm sort of a loner. I like to be alone sometimes."

"And sit with any of those other losers?" Bulk shook his head, emptying the stolen lunch bag and his own lunch bag out onto the table. Avalon stared at all of the food, suddenly very envious. "I don't think so. I mean, what if them being such goody-goodies rubbed off on me? That would be horrific."

"Bulkie here-"

"How come you always talk about Bulk?" Avalon's eyes narrowed as she studied Skull. "I mean, so far, all I've heard you talk about is Bulkie this, and Bulkie that." She spread her hands. "Now, I'm not saying that Bulk is a bad guy, I'm sure he has _some_ redeeming qualities." She pushed her hair out of her face. "But you seem like you don't have a lot of attention on yourself."

"That's because he's a moron," Bulk commented before taking a bite of his foot long sandwich.

"That's up for debate, "Avalon said her eyes still on Skull. Skull looked surprised, then turned away from her. "Like, what kind of movies do you like? Do you read books?" She paused. "Probably not. What do you do for fun?"

"He doesn't do a lot," Bulk replied through a mouthful of food.

"Yeah, I don't do a lot," Skull repeated as he dug into his own lunch. "I mean, other than help Bulk try to find out the identities of the Power Rangers."

Avalon froze for a second, her sandwich lightly slipping through her fingers. _Do they know? _She slowly lowered her sandwich back to the ground and tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing slightly. The way that he said it, it sounded like they had been trying to figure it out for a while, so there was no way that they knew about her. Not that that would matter anyway, she hadn't even decided whether or not she was even going to join them anyway. Zordon and Alpha made it seem like she didn't have a choice in the matter, but she knew that she wasn't up for the whole thing. It wasn't in her character to help other people.

In a way, she was pretty selfish, only thinking about herself and her sister. She didn't let anyone get close to them and she stole from other people to get money for the two of them. She would be too much of a hypocrite if she had joined them.

"Really?" She brought her sandwich back up to her mouth. "I haven't lived in Angel Grove too long, only for a couple of years, but they always seem to be in the news." _You can't go a day without having heard about them somehow. If not on TV the in the newspaper. _Her hand drifted down to her morpher and she ran her fingers over it again. _Maybe this isn't a good idea. _Avalon took a bite and started to chew it. "Why do you want to find them out so badly?"

"Because they're superheroes," Skull replied, seemingly coming to life. He had said it so loudly that some other students turned to look at them. At Bulk's glare and slightly growl, they all looked away again. "They're not these…stupid do-gooder high schoolers that act like they're better than anyone else."

"They help others because they can and because they want to help them," Bulk added. "Plus, it would be big news if anyone found out who they really were."

"So you want some sort of cash prize out of it?" Avalon asked.

"No, we just want the recognition that we deserve!"

Avalon sucked in a sharp breath. She knew that she had heard that before. In fact…she had seen the whole conversation play out in front of her before. But that was impossible; no one could see the future. _But I didn't really see the future, I was asleep…_Avalon was broken out of her thoughts by Skull's next movement.

Skull slammed his fist on the table to punctuate his sentence. He slammed the table so hard that the drinks that Avalon, Bulk, and Skull had went flying and spilled all over the place, some landing on Bulk and Skull, the rest of it splashing to the floor. Avalon burst out laughing as Bulk shoved Skull on the shoulder, knocking him out of his chair and onto the ground. Bulk wiped soda off of his face before grabbing a bunch of napkins that had been packed into his lunch and rubbed them over his face.

"What's so funny?" Bulk demanded as Avalon continued to laugh.

"You are!" Avalon said as she calmed down. "Both of you." Her eyes flicked over to the other rangers before she looked at Bulk and Skull again. A odd look was in her eyes. "You're so much more interesting than the rest of the people around here. Unique, even."

"Thanks!" Skull beamed as he got off of the floor. He then did his famous laugh, causing Avalon to chuckle.

"I like your laugh, too." Avalon continued.

"Most people find it annoying," Skull remarked as he cleaned up some of his mess.

"Well, one thing that I'm sure that you'll find out sooner, mate," Avalon rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward. "I'm not most people."

_That's an understatement._

* * *

"Does anyone else think that it's kind of weird that Avalon is willingly hanging out with Bulk and Skull?" Trini asked as she put her books into her locker. "I saw them at lunch today and she seems to be getting along with them very well."

"What I can't understand is why anyone would want to waste their time on them in general," Kimberly said as she rolled her eyes. She shrugged. "But, maybe she's still trying to find her way around. She's only been here for a week."

"I don't know," Jason said slowly, grabbing the two girl's attention. "There's something…off about her. I can't explain it, really," he said, noticing the curious looks on the two girls' faces. "I just have a feeling about it, like there's something about her that we don't know." He shrugged. "But I'm also wondering about Zordon, the new communicator, and the Orange Ranger stuff, it's been filling my head all week."

"I know what you mean," Kimberly agreed, reaching out her hand and lightly placing it on Jason's arm. "I even had a dream last night, where I could see the Orange Ranger, but I couldn't see their face, it was all blurred out." She frowned. "I haven't been that frustrated since I missed the shoe sale in the mall at the very last minute." She shook her head. "I had to buy all of them at full price rather than 75% off."

"Ooh, that sounds so scary, I'm going to have nightmares for weeks," Trini teased her friend.

"About this project that we're working on you mean?" Tommy asked as he, Zack, and Billy came up to them. He gave Kimberly a kiss on the cheek before putting his arm around her shoulders. "It's going to be brutal.

"It's not due 'til the end of the month," Jason pointed out. "So you have a while to work on it."

"Yeah and a while of being stuck in Bulk's and Skull's torture," Tommy reminded him, raising an eyebrow. "I tried coming up with a topic with them today, but they just spent the whole time shooting spit balls at Billy."

"After I calculated the trajectory of the first one, it wasn't hard to dodge the rest," Billy said with a shrug. "But Tommy is right; I don't see how working with Bulk and Skull is going to save his grade." He turned to Zack. "Hopefully they didn't rub off too much on Avalon, or else we're going to be in trouble too."

"Did someone just say my name?" The rangers turned around to see Avalon standing behind them, her hands on her hips. Her dark brown eyes darted back and forth over each person's face. When the others stared back at her she let out a breath looking up at the ceiling. "What? Your cactus stares are really creeping me out."

"We were just talking about our project," Zack said, giving her a smile. "We were thinking that we could get started on picking a topic today so we don't have to worry about having so much work piled up on us later."

"Makes sense," Avalon said slowly. She looked like she didn't believe them, but didn't pressure him even further. "What were you thinking of? Library? Park?"

"Well, you have to pick up your sister after school right?" Billy asked. "Why don't we just go to your place? It makes more sense to go in the same direction and with the districting of those that come to this school as well as calculating the distance from the middle school; you can't live that far away from here, right?"

"Right," Avalon said slowly. She thought quickly. "But, uh, we can't go to my place."

"Why not?" Trini asked. "What Billy said does make a lot of sense. I know that he can use big words sometimes, but it was pretty straight forward this time."

"It's not that," Avalon brought a hand up to her forehead. "I understood him; believe me, once you hear my sister talk." She licked her lips, keeping her gaze on her feet. "No, it's just that…we've got fumigators coming over to the house, to check for rodents, silverfish, stuff like that, and I don't think you want to get poisoned." She lifted her head and looked up at the group.

She could feel herself starting to sweat when she noticed Jason's hard stare on her. She frowned a little, not sure how else to react. One thing that Avalon was known for was the fact that she didn't back down from a challenge and that she resisted authority the best that she could. But when it came to the way that Jason was looking at her, it was like he could see right through her. It made her wonder if he knew about what was going on, but her second thought reassured her.

They were too careful for anyone to come close to figuring out what really was going on.

"Any particular reason why you're staring at me, Rudolph?" She questioned.

"Rudolph?" Kimberly repeated, giggling slightly. "That's a good one."

"I've got Twinkle Toes and Smurf too," Avalon said, motioning over to Zack and Billy. "Now I just need to figure out something for you three." She gave a half smile before turning back to Billy. "I don't feel like failing and I don't think that you would feel like lying on your deathbed in a hospital, so your place or no?"

"Don't you still have to get Bailey?" Zack asked.

"D'you mind if she tags along?" Avalon started to become impatient. "I don't have any other place to take her."

"Why don't we all just go to the Youth Center?" Trini suggested. "Kim, Jason, and I have to work on our projects too, so we can hang out while we're working on them."

"Whatever!" Avalon threw her hands into the air. "I just need an answer so I can tell Bailey what we're doing. You don't know her very well, but she likes to do things a certain way and she likes to know what she's doing before she does it." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Eleven years old and she has _no_ idea how to be spontaneous. Thankfully it's what I'm ace at." She looked at her watch. "Wow, it's about time to pick her up already."

She turned on her heel and started to walk down the hall over to her locker. She lifted the latch and opened the door, grabbing onto her backpack.

"Whoa, what happened?" Tommy cried when he saw the dent in her door. "Did you lose a fight with your locker this morning?"

"No, it was just stuck," Avalon replied. "Bulk got it open for me."

"Do you think that it's a good idea for you to hang out with them?" Kimberly asked, lightly twirling some of her hair around her finger. "I don't mean to say that you have bad judgment, it's just that Bulk and Skull aren't usually the kind of guys that you want to be associated with."

"They're funny," Avalon shrugged. "And entertaining." She pulled her backpack out of her locker and closed it. "I don't see why people don't really give them a chance. If you ask me, they seem kind of lonely." She turned to walk to the front doors of the school but tripped and fell over her feet, falling flat to the ground, her arms out in front of her. "Wow, I'm getting tired of that."

"Are you ok?" Tommy reached out and he and Jason helped her to her feet.

"Pshht, I'm fine," Avalon brushed off her clothes. "You'd be surprised at how much of a klutz I am. I'm always hurting myself on something." She started walking again. "It's a wonder that I'm ever off the ground." She added, rubbing her hip.

"No problem, some dance practice should help with that," Zack demonstrated by doing a few dance moves.

"Thanks Twinkle Toes, but I don't dance." Avalon dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "I like to draw, read, write, play the guitar, surf, and go to the mall, that's about it."

"Uh-oh," Jason laughed lightly when he noticed Kimberly's eyes light up. "You should never mention the words 'mall' or 'sale' around Kim. She can be in there for hours on end, even when there's absolutely nothing for her to buy."

"It's not just shopping that I like about it," Kimberly rolled her eyes. "It's the _experience._"

"And one trip to the mall with Kim is definitely an experience," Trini said. She and Kimberly laughed as Kimberly reached out and lightly shoved her before putting her arm around Trini's shoulders. "Which way to the middle school?"

Avalon pointed in the direction before leading the others there. _I hope no one shows up at the Youth Center, I wouldn't be able to explain that. _Avalon thought about her morpher in her backpack. _Hell, I hope I don't get stuck having to save someone else._

Avalon arrived at the middle school and spotted Bailey quickly and waved her over. "You remember these guys, right?" She asked, briefly waving her arm over to the group behind her.

"Yeah, hi." Bailey waved a hand before suddenly looking at her feet, her cheeks flushing red. She shuffled her feet. "Um, I'm ready to go home now."

"We can't," Avalon said sharply, causing Bailey to look up at her. "Remember?" She asked, widening her eyes slightly. "The place is being fumigated, Mum and Dad called it in _weeks_ ago." Bailey gave her a confused look. "As it is, we're going to the Youth Center to work on this stupid project that we've been assigned." She motioned to Zack and Billy.

"Oh," Bailey looked over at the black and blue ranger before turning back to her sister, a bright smile suddenly on her face. Avalon gave her an odd look. "Ok!"

* * *

**A/N: **Wow, long wait for an update, sorry about that. Some more things changed with this chapter, but a lot was still different, I hope you guys liked it. Thanks so much for all of your kind words, alerts, and favorites. I haven't watched the show (any seasons really) in years so if there's anything wrong, please let me know so I can fix it, I'll also take constructive criticism.

**-Avalon**


	4. Chapter 4: Code Orange

**Chapter 04**

* * *

Tommy closed his locker door and took a deep breath as he turned to see Kimberly at her locker. He shook his hands out, wiping them on the sides of his pants before he made his way over to her. Kimberly looked up as he was walking over and smiled, running a hand through her hair, being careful not to dislodge the pink flower that was resting by her ear.

"Hey Tommy, what's up?" She asked him before stretching up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Oh, well, not much," Tommy returned her smile. "Just…" he trailed off, licking his lips. "Listen, I don't want you to think that I don't care about you." He started. Kimberly gave him a confused look, tilting her head to the side. "But…doing cute, creative things…I'm just not good at it. And I know that you're probably expecting a really public way of me asking you but…" he pulled out his hand that was behind his back, revealing a bouquet of roses.

"Tommy!" Kimberly's eyes lit up as she took the bouquet. "They're so beautiful." She hugged them to her chest and sniffed them, smiling at the pleasant scent that wafted out of them. "Thanks so much."

"So, will you go to the homecoming dance with me?" Tommy asked with sheepish smile.

"Of course," Kimberly looked over her shoulder before giving him a kiss.

"Settle down, kids, some might be uncomfortable with that sort of thing," Zack teased as he walked over. He clapped Tommy on the shoulder. "I told you that the flowers would work, man." He winked at the two of them. "Never underestimate the work of flowers."

"That's because you use them to try to distract your mother when you get a bad grade," Jason commented as he, Billy, and Trini walked over as well. He turned to Kimberly. "What are you doing today? Do you want to help me and the guys with a class that I'm teaching today? It's bigger than any of the other ones I've had and it'll be easier to have a lot of help so different aspects, like balance, can be worked on in smaller groups."

"Oh, I can't," Kimberly said with a apologetic smile.

"Kimberly and I are going to the mall to put our homecoming dresses on reserve," Trini replied.

"What'd I tell ya, man?" Zack shook his head as Tommy laughed. "They always have to know their dresses two weeks ahead of time."

"Actually, the idea has some merit," Billy spoke up. He held his books at his side. "The intelligible idea of utilizing one's time to its full potential will not only set you up for attainment in the future, but it's a useful clout to have."

"What he said," Trini agreed. "It's better if we get it done now. That way we'll have more time to plan spirit week and the events and stuff leading up to homecoming. Plus, there's the decorating and the budget that we have to go over as well."

"So," Kimberly linked her arm through Trini's. "We need to get going now or we're going to fall way behind schedule." Her smile widened. "And when I say schedule, I mean my shopping plan, because there has to be enough time to buy shoes…more than one pair if there's a sale!"

* * *

"I saw the cutest dress here the other day," Kimberly said as she and Trini walked through the mall, over to a store that had many bright colored dresses in front windows. "They have so many great choices, too. It was hard to choose just one."

"I'll bet," Trini agreed as they walked into the store. "You and dresses…you always have such a hard time just picking one."

"It's not my fault that they're, like, so cute and perfect," Kimberly giggled. She headed straight for the dresses at the back of the store. Those were the ones that were more formal, the ones towards the front of the store held what you would normally wear on a Saturday afternoon or for a walk in the park. "Look!" Kimberly beamed and pulled out a pink dress with a black rose in the corner. "Isn't it amazing?" She asked her best friend.

"It's perfect for you," Trini agreed. "Go try it on," she urged.

"Ok," Kimberly held the dress against her chest before she hurried into the dressing room and it tried it on. To her delight, it fit her perfectly. Once she left the dressing room, she then walked over to the accessories and found a pair of black high heels, a white bracelet, and a white head band with a pink rose on it.

"Ok, now we need to find something for you," Kimberly said as she turned to Trini. "You're gonna totally die when you see what I have in mind."

"I'm sure it's great, Kim," Trini agreed.

They walked back over to the other dresses and found a yellow dress with a big black belt for Trini to try on, Trini walked into the dressing room and tried it on, and it also fit her perfectly. They then found the perfect accessories for her dress as well, a pair of black high heels and a black rose chain necklace with a diamond in the middle

"That's so awesome, Trini!" Kimberly cried when she saw the necklace that her friend had picked out. "Seriously, I think it's the best necklace that I've ever seen. It reminds me of the necklace that I'm going to wear. It's my favorite; I got it from my mother." She nodded earnestly. "The pearl one, you know? It's so rad."

"I really do like it," Trini agreed. She looked over the dress before looking back at the necklace that was in her hands. "We should go and pay for this stuff before someone else tries to get them." The two went back to the dressing rooms and changed into their clothes before taking their dresses and accessories over to the cash registers.

Once they paid for their dresses, Kimberly and Trini took their bags and started to slowly walk through the mall, looking around at the other stores to see if there was anything else that they wanted to get. Kimberly gazed at a pair of wedge heels that was being displayed in a window with a longing stare. But she was trying to keep herself from buying too much

"C'mon Kim," Trini lightly tugged her arm. "It's not going to help if you if you're staring at them like that."

"But they're so cute!" Kimberly protested.

"Kim, you think all shoes are cute," Trini reminded her with a laugh. "That's why your closet is filled to the brim with them."

"I can't help it," Kimberly leaned heavily into Trini's side, pouting. "I just love them all." She and Trini laughed, lightly pushing each other. Kimberly twirled into Trini's path and then turned to her best friend with a sly smile. "Do you have a date to the dance yet?"

"Not yet," Trini replied, shaking her head. "I've been too busy to even think about it." She shrugged, moving her hands behind her back, twisting her bag back and forth.

"Good," Kimberly clasped her hands together. "Because I know someone perfect that you should go out with." She wiggled her eyebrows before laughing, lightly pushing Trini's arm. "You should go with Billy; the two of you would have a great time together!"

"I don't know, Kim," Trini shrugged again. "Dances aren't really Billy's thing-"

"So?" Kimberly interrupted. "You guys would have a blast together!" She stopped walking and tilted her head to the side. "I mean, you like him don't you?"

"It's not that Kim, it's just…" Trini shook her head. "Never mind, forget about it." Kimberly pouted and looked like she was going to push the issue even further, but Trini looked to the side, taking her eyes away from her friend. "Hey, look, it's Avalon." She pointed.

Kimberly turned around and the two watched as Avalon walked over to the large fountain and sat down on the edge, crossing her legs at the knee, her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket. She bounced her foot up and down, the heel of her boot barely grazing the floor. It looked like she was waiting for someone.

"Let's go over and say 'hi'," Kimberly said and started over before Trini could say anything. "Hey Avalon," Kimberly greeted her cheerfully. "What brings you here?"

Avalon lifted her brown eyes to Kimberly. "I'm taking in the whole mall experience," She said with a sarcastic edge to her accented voice. "They don't have places like this back in Oz." She commented. She shook her head. Her hair, which was pulled back in a orange scrunchie, bobbed with her movements. She then crossed her legs the other way. "I'm just waiting for some friends of mine."

"Oh right, you said that you've been living in Angel Grove for a couple of years now," Trini nodded. She smiled warmly. "How do you like the place?"

"I like it fine," Avalon shrugged. "There just seem to be a lot of monster attacks and earth quakes around here."

"Oh yeah," Kimberly tried to keep a straight face. "It's so weird, isn't it? It's like something out of a monster movie."

"You just have to be careful around here," Trini added. "Keep your eyes open and stay as safe as possible."

Avalon nodded at the advice, but didn't respond. She then looked at the bags that were in their hands. "I'm guessing you just got your dresses for the dance next month?" She asked and then tilted her head to the side as they nodded. "I didn't know that people still went to those things."

"You're not going?" Trini asked, her eyebrows rising. "It's homecoming, everyone goes to the homecoming dance."

"Dances aren't my thing," Avalon said simply. "I never really got the point of dressing up to go to a dance. Besides, there's always some sort of aggro drama that pops up somewhere." Her eyes shifted behind the two girls as she stood up. She nodded over at Chase, Skye and Summer as they moved to her side, all wearing black leather jackets as well. Avalon paused for a moment before turning back to Kimberly and Trini. "This is Chase, Skye, and Summer." She then turned her friends who were studying the Pink and Yellow Ranger closely. "Guys, this is Kimberly and Trini."

"T'sup?" Skye asked with a light bob of his head. He looked down at their bags and s smile slowly spread across their faces. "Looks like you've got a lot of shopping done."

"Deb," Summer added with a smile. "That's my kind of store. Cute dresses and everything."

"I know," Kimberly agreed. "We just got our homecoming dresses. The dance is next month."

"Lucky you can afford it," Summer's smile waned for a moment. "The stuff is kind of expensive."

"Summer, lay off," Avalon warned her friend. She looked at Kimberly and Trini out of the corner of her eye for a moment before looking at her again. "All you ever do is talk about money, sheila, it gets old fast." Summer merely shrugged.

"Pinkie," Chase turned towards Avalon, completely ignoring Trini and Kimberly.

_Pinkie? _Trini's eyebrows knitted together.

"Didn't you say that you had to get your sister today?" Chase continued.

"She's working on a science project with her group at school," Avalon replied, looking back at Chase, returning his challenging stare. "What's it to ya?" She shook her head. "Ignore him," she was now speaking to Kimberly and Trini. "He thinks that he's some sort of a God or something." She twirled her finger by her head, causing the two girls to laugh. "I have to go," she tilted her head towards her friends. "I've got plans."

"We'll see you in school," Kimberly agreed. As Avalon turned away, her eyes moved towards the belt that she was wearing. She let out a light gasp when she caught a glimpse of Avalon's morpher. Kimberly grabbed onto Trini's arm and pulled her to the side, sitting on the edge of the fountain, knowing that the rushing water of the attraction would mask their voices. "Trini, I think Avalon has a morpher."

"What?" Trini's eyes widened. "Are you sure, Kim?"

"No," Kimberly admitted. "But when she was turning away, I caught a glimpse of her belt buckle, and it looked exactly like a morpher."

"But why would Zordon give her the powers and not tell us?" Trini asked. "If it really was a morpher." She added. Trini thought for a moment and then snapped her fingers. "The communicator!" She cried. Kimberly made a face. "Remember? Zordon wanted him to make another communicator, what if it's for Avalon?"

"Then why wouldn't Zordon and Alpha tell us?" Kimberly asked. "The last time this happened, Tommy was given the powers of the White Ranger and it was being kept a secret so Rita wouldn't try to use her powers of darkness against him as he was first getting his powers." She raised a finger to his chin. "It must be something important if they haven't said anything."

"We won't know unless we ask," Trini pointed out. She looked down as their communicators sounded. "Speak of the devil." She lifted her communicator up to her mouth. "What's gong on, Zordon?"

"You and Kimberly need to get to the command center right away," Zordon replied.

"Got it," Trini said.

"Let's go." Kimberly nodded.

She and Kimberly got up and hurried over to the bathrooms, ducking inside. They checked the stalls to be sure that they were alone before they transported to the command center.

* * *

"Good, you're here," Jason said once Kimberly and Trini appeared at his side. He gestured to the viewing globe. "Check it out."

Kimberly and Trini looked over at the viewing globe. They gasped when they saw Rita's latest monster, what looked like a giant fish attacking a nearby playground. What made it worse was that was where Bailey and her group had been working on their project. When the girls spotted the monster, they tried to get away. But Bailey tripped and fell and the monster converged on her.

"We have to help her," Zack said, watching the screen intently.

Trini turned around o face Zordon. "Does this have to do with Avalon?" She asked him. At Tommy's, Jason's, Zack's, and Billy's confused glances, she quickly explained what happened at the mall. "Zordon, we can't risk Bailey getting hurt."

"Wait a minute." Jason held up his hands. He looked hard at Trini. "Are you saying that Avalon is one of us?"

"We don't know," Kimberly shook her head. "I thought I saw a morpher on her when we were at the mall, but I couldn't be sure."

Jason thought for a moment and then nodded. "Whether it's true or not, I'm not going to allow a innocent person to get hurt." He turned to Tommy and he nodded back. "It's morphin' time!"

"Tiger Zord!"

"Mastodon!"

"Pterodactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Saber Tooth Tiger!"

"Tyrannosaurus!"

The Rangers transported to the park where the fish monster had grabbed onto Bailey and was trying to hold her still. Bailey was putting up a formidable fight, rocking back and forth as she tried to break free. She fell to her knees, still struggling to get away, screaming the whole time.

"Let's do it, guys!" Tommy said, forming his hand into a fist.

"Bailey!" The rangers turned to see Avalon running through the playground towards her sister. Her hair had fallen out of the ponytail and was flying behind her as she ran. "Bailey! Let my sister go you bludger!" Once she got close enough Avalon gave a flying kick to the monster's head, knocking him to the side, releasing his grip on Bailey.

Bailey fell to the ground with a grunt. "Av!" She called towards her older sister.

"Get out of here," Avalon called. Bailey leapt to her feet and ran away as she fast as she could. Avalon turned back to the monster, her hands moving into fists by her face. "What are you anyway?"

"The Savage Sardine and I have direct orders from Rita to get rid of you!" The fish monster turned around and whipped Avalon with its tail, knocking her over. Avalon got back to her feet and charged the Savage Sardine, knocking him to the ground. She punched the Savage Sardine in the face a couple of times before he managed to knock her off of him again. The fish monster then used its webbed hands to slash Avalon's cheek before it swung its tail again, giving her a nasty blow to the head.

"You can do whatever you want to me," Avalon said as she got to her feet, a fire blazing in her dark eyes. "But when you touch my sister, that's when you cross the line." She kicked the Savage Sardine between the legs before backing up, giving herself some space. She looked down at her belt. "Number one rule in street fighting," she said to herself. "Use whatever you have around you to your advantage." Avalon quickly took her morpher off of her belt and raised it up to the sky. "Stegosaurus!"

To the Rangers' amazement, Avalon transformed into the orange ranger.

* * *

"Hiya!"

Avalon, now the orange ranger, surged forward and attacked the Savage Sardine with her new power. Avalon couldn't help but smile grimly to herself when she found that she was stronger than before, due to the new powers that she had acquired. It was probably the only thing that she could find that was good about having to be a ranger. _Maybe if I could turn into a ranger when our group gets challenged, they wouldn't mess with us anymore._

Avalon continued to attack the Savage Sardine before she held her hand out to the sky. "Stegorang!" She called. Her boomerang with spikes, much like a stegosaurus, appeared in her hand. She ducked as the Savage Sardine turned towards her, trying to hit her with its tail, and then jumped high into the air. "Let's see if you can handle this!" She threw the boomerang and as it flew around the Savage Sardine, it did enough damage to cause him to fall to the ground as Avalon caught her boomerang again.

Avalon's eyes widened when there was a crackling of blue electricity and the savage sardine grew in size, towering over her, like Godzilla.

"This bloke really means business," she muttered to herself.

"Avalon now is the time to call upon the power of your stegosaurus zord!" Zordon's voice filled Avalon's helmet. "It's the only way that you can defeat the Savage Sardine."

"Got it," Avalon threw a hand into the air. "Stegosaurus!" She called. Avalon whipped around as there was a loud roaring sound behind her and found that her orange stegosaurus zord grunted and lowered its head. Avalon grinned. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" She jumped high into the air and entered the cockpit of her zord. "Let's see what this baby can do!"

"Don't think that you can defeat me!" The Savage Sardine cried. He attacked her zord; managing t hit her with his webbed hands along with a combination attack of a lashing with its tail.

"No you don't," Avalon muttered under her breath, her frustration quickly rising. She grabbed onto the controls of her zord and maneuvered it around so that the tail of the stegosaurus to hit the savage sardine. When the Savage Sardine hit the ground and tried to get back to its feet. Avalon tugged on the controls once more. This caused her zord to form itself into a ball, the spies along its back forming a protective shell around her. She twisted a knob and her zord started to harness energy as it started to rotate, much like a tire that was being revved on a car. "Fire!"

Like it was shot out of a canon, her zord rocketed forward and crashed into the savage sardine, easily defeating the monster.

* * *

Avalon let out a weary sigh once she got back to the apartment. She was wiped out from the battle earlier that day. She didn't think it was that bad, but once the power was gone, when she powered down from being a ranger, it was like all of her energy had been taken away from her. When the battle was over, she had sat down on a bench at the playground for a while and just thought about everything that had happened. Things definitely could have gone worse if Zordon and Alpha hadn't alerted her to the fact that her sister was in trouble. She probably wouldn't have fought the monster if it wasn't for her sister, if she was completely honest with herself. She was going out to do another hit on a different house, after being absolutely sure that no one was going to be back for a while. Chase was pissed when she had to leave.

So when the fight was over and she was done thinking, she had gone back to the house to see what was left. All she managed to get was a few measly pair of earrings, and they were the really expensive ones so she knew she was going to be limited on what she got from it. Avalon had then caught up with Chase, Summer, and Skye and they all went to the Pawn shop to get the money from it. She managed to get away with almost four hundred dollars, but it wasn't anywhere near close to what she had gotten from the last hit. Chase didn't say anything about it, but she knew that he was questioning her loyalty to them.

All of it was just making her even more paranoid than she was before.

"Av!"

Avalon got the wind knocked out of her as she was practically body-slammed against the door by her little sister. She looked down to see Bailey's arms wrapped tightly around her waist and was being squeezed tight. Avalon was about to tease her, calling her a baby about the way that she was acting, but then she got a good look at her sister's face. She had been crying; her eyes were completely bloodshot, she had dried tears on her face, and she was shaking. Avalon could feel Bailey shaking through her jacket.

"Bay, it's ok," Avalon said, wrapping her arms around her little sister and hugging her back. "Things are going to be ok." She titled Bailey's head back and wiped away her tears. "I promised that things were going to be ok with mum and dad's situation and I was right, right?" Bailey sucked in a gulp of air and nodded, her lower lip trembling. "And things are going to be ok now; I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

Bailey nodded, but continued to hold onto her sister. Avalon waited until she was calm enough, before she bent down and hoisted Bailey onto her back, piggy-backing her into the living room and dropping her onto the couch. "You know you really have a knack for getting in trouble," she remarked, before flopping down onto the couch next to her sister.

"And you have a knack for getting me out of it," Bailey replied. She wiped at her face. "How did you know where I was, anyway?"

Avalon closed her eyes, thinking about what she could possibly say to explain it. She knew that it would be hard to lie to Bailey, because Bailey would be able to figure it out really quickly. She had figured out that Avalon was in a gang faster than anyone else could even notice that her grades were starting to slip. It shocked her at first, but then it made sense, considering the fact that Bailey, without a doubt, had the smarts in the family. She could read Avalon like a book. It was only a matter of time until she noticed the bruises from the fights that she got in, and all of the money that she seemed to suddenly start getting (though she would hide it from her parents). It often made Avalon wonder if she was a bad sister, doing what she was doing. Lying to basically everyone they knew, taking care of Bailey herself, committing crimes day after day just to be sure that their heads stayed above water.

She knew it was wrong. She was even feeling guilty more times than not, because of what she was doing. But she was doing it for a selfless reason; to keep her sister from having to worry and that was the only thought that got her through the day. She couldn't risk anyone else finding out about what was going on. That's why she didn't have any friends, that's why she wouldn't have anyone over, that's why she wouldn't let anyone get close to her or her sister; even though it would probably be better if Bailey did have someone her own age to turn to. But she couldn't take that risk. She could risk them getting screwed over again and again. She promised herself that it was going to stop and it stopped. She wasn't going to allow their situation to go back to the way it was before. If she continued o be careful, then they could live well until Bailey was old enough to move out.

People were too scared to talk.

So she was safe for the time being.

So how was she going to explain all of it to a girl that, while she was smart, was still a little girl?

"Av?"

"Hmm?" Avalon opened her eyes to see Bailey still staring at her.

"Boofhead." Bailey gave a small smile. "I asked how you knew that I was in trouble."

"I always know when you're in trouble," Avalon said shortly. She desperately wanted to change the subject. "You're my sister; it's my business to know."

"But you were at the mall with your friends," Bailey insisted as only a ten year old girl could do. "Like, across the city. How did you know to come help me?"

Avalon stared hard at her sister and Bailey stared right back at her. Part of her was annoyed at that point, since she knew that the only way that Bailey learned not to back down from anything was from her. _Sucks being the oldest sometimes, especially when they mimic you so much. _Avalon decided not to answer the question, getting up from the couch and moving over to the kitchen. She was going to start dinner, anything, just to get that question away from her.

"You're a power ranger aren't you?" Avalon stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at Bailey. There was no point in denying it; she could tell just from the look on her sister's face that she knew it was the truth. Avalon's mouth gaped open, not sure what to say. "It wasn't that hard to figure out," Bailey said. She gave a half smile. "The fact that you have the same sort of belt buckle that the rangers do solidified it for me. I had my suspicions before then."

Avalon let out a sigh, running a hand over her forehead. She didn't even want to say the words out loud. That would make things too real for her, especially after what happened that day.

"Thanks Av," Bailey continued.

Avalon playfully scowled at her sister. "Just go take a bath."

"Fine."

Bailey left the living room and disappeared into the bathroom. When she heard the water turn on, Avalon went over to the counter to check the mail. Her scowl deepened when she noticed how many bills were in there. Definitely more than what she had made that day. That just meant that she had to be a bit more creative to get money for them. Avalon tossed the bills aside before getting out pots and pans.

_I'm going to make sure that Bailey stays with me if it's the last thing that I ever do._

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry, again for the wait for an update. I got back to school and I've had to help out with orientation and that took up a LOT of time. The next one won't take as long to update. Next chapter will have even more changes for you guys.

-**Avalon**


	5. Chapter 5: Part of the Team

**Chapter 05**

* * *

Jason, Kimberly, Zack, Trini, and Tommy watched as Avalon, the Orange Ranger exited her zord, landing on the ground in a crouch. She slowly stood up, placing her hands on her hips. She looked at the area the monster had just been before looking around. She looked straight at the rangers for a few moments before turning and running out of sight with an incredible amount of speed.

"Power down!" Tommy cried.

The rangers all turned to each other once they powered out of their suits. Each of their faces had the same amount of shock and worry. "If Avalon is the orange ranger, then it can't be much longer until Rita finds out her identity," Tommy said.

"And if she does find out, then there's going to be more monster attacks," Zack agreed. "We've seen how she got when she was using Tommy as the green ranger." He shook his head, the memories flooding back. "She was ruthless then…she'll be even worse now."

"What are we going to do?" Kimberly chewed her lower lip in worry. "We can't just go up to her and tell her that we know she's the orange ranger. Not without bringing attention to ourselves." She brushed her brown hair behind her ear. "Not without telling her that we're rangers too."

"Maybe that's what we should do," Trini said. All eyes turned to her. "Think about it," she said calmly. "She might be confused, scared about the whole thing. If we tell her who we are…maybe we can show her that she's not alone. That we're all part of a team."

"It doesn't look like she wants to join our team," Kimberly reminded her.

"Trini has a point, though," Billy said. He brought a hand up to his chin, lowering his gaze in thought. He was quiet for a moment, and then dropped his hand, shaking his head slightly. "Rita aside…for our own protection, and Bailey's, it might be better if we reveal ourselves. That way we can cut our losses and keep an eye on both of them in case Rita is up to her usual, dirty tricks."

"Someone's going to have to try and talk to her about being a ranger," Jason said firmly. "Kim and Trini have already tried talking to her at the mall and they didn't get much, and I haven't seen her much since we found out that she was a ranger." He frowned. "But we have to do something before it's too late."

"We'll regroup later," Tommy decided. "Right now, we're bringing too much attention to ourselves, especially if someone comes by to see what happened here." The rangers jogged out of the park before teleporting back to Ernie's before going their separate ways.

* * *

_"Someone's going to have to try and talk to her about being a ranger. Kim and Trini have already tried talking to her at the mall and they didn't get much, and I haven't seen her much since we found out that she was a ranger, but we have to do something."_

Jason's words echoed in Tommy's head as she moved towards his locker one morning. He remembered what it was like, having been a new ranger, having his powers ripped away, then being brought back as a ranger again. Things were so stressful and weird for him then. Even though he had the other rangers' trust and confidence in him, he couldn't help but feel a little…weird. He had a feeling of doubt, that they didn't think that they could handle it. They had been doing it for so long when he joined them; it just took a while for him to feel completely comfortable.

That's what he expected Avalon to feel. She wasn't the most outgoing person in the world, but it still couldn't be easy for her.

"Look, it's the leader of the dorks," Bulk's voice reached Tommy's ears, causing him to roll his eyes. He had enough of Bulk and Skull, having put them in their place almost on a daily basis, but they didn't seem to understand when to give up. At least they were harmless for the most part. "Where are your dorky friends?"

Tommy turned to Bulk, raising an eyebrow. "They're not here yet," he said calmly. He found that not giving Bulk and Skull an actual response was the best way to go. To show that they weren't really getting to him. "And don't you think that, by now, you would've some other way to insult us? I mean…" he placed his hand on Bulk's shoulder. "Dorks and Losers are getting kind of old."

Tommy nearly laughed out loud, silently watching the gears slowly turn in Bulk's head. After the words sunk in, Bulk shot a glare over at the white ranger, eyeing him with nothing but distaste. "Yeah, well, Bulky here has a ton of insults to use against you guys!" Skull sneered, coming to Bulk's rescue. He crossed his arms over his chest before reaching out and slapping Bulk on the arm. "Tell him Bulky."

"Yeah, tell me, Bulky." Tommy raised his right eyebrow before he shook his head. There was a small smile on his face that infuriated Bulk even further. "Look, we have that project that we need to work on. Why don't we just try and have some sort of a compromise? While we work on the project, you stop ragging on me and we'll get a good grade."

"Sorry." Bulk shrugged and then continued in a taunting tone, "I don't speak, loser."

"Whatever man." Tommy shrugged as well. "But we really need to start this project and I'm not going to be doing all of the work."

"Well, I-"

"Hey boys, what's going on?" Avalon walked over to the teenage boys and stood between them. Though she was shorter than all of them, standing at an even five feet, her confidence made her appear taller. She turned to Bulk and Skull, her dark eyes flashing with warning. "I hope you're not wasting your time on this bloke." She tossed her head over to Tommy. "You have a better chance of going after someone that's actually going to cower in fear."

Bulk turned his gaze to Avalon. "It's not my fault these dweebs act like they run the place around here."

"Wait a minute-"Tommy started to say.

"How about I buy you your lunch today and you leave him alone?" Avalon suggested. "Really, it's on me. It'll give you a break from having to scare kids out of theirs. That way you can rest and start up again tomorrow." She looked over at Skull and laughed when she noticed that he had stuck out his lower lip. "I'll get yours too, Skull." She said and then a mischievous glint came to her eye. "Trust me; I have enough money to spare and more."

"Whatever." Bulk turned on his heel and started to walk away. He turned back to Avalon. "And don't try to stiff me on the good stuff."

Avalon raised a hand, signaling that she heard him, before she went to walk to her own locker. _Probably the only person that would be able to get him to back off of someone they're tormenting that's not a teacher. _Tommy followed her as she spun the dial on her lock and pulled it open. "Was there something that you wanted?" She asked, not turning her head.

"Yeah," Tommy said slowly. He looked over his shoulder before taking a step closer to her. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, waiting for him to speak. "Listen, I know that this may be heard to believe but…" he lowered his voice, taking a step closer to her."I know that you're the Orange Ranger." Avalon lifted her head from her locker and slowly turned to him, her eyes narrowing. However, Tommy noticed that she didn't seem surprised. It was like she had been waiting for him, or someone, to tell her. _That's definitely not what I was expecting. _"I'm a Power Ranger too." He explained.

Avalon closed her locker door and slung her backpack over her shoulders. She shrugged before tilting her head to the side. "Good for you." Her eyebrows then lowere in a troubling expression. She brought a thumb up to her mouth and started to chew on the nail. Slowly, she dropped her hand and looked right into Tommy's eyes. He saw her lower jaw tremble for a moment, her eyes flashing confusion. "Wait," she said slowly. "The others…" She lowered her voice as well. "…They're power rangers too aren't they?"

"Yes." Tommy confirmed her questioned with a nod. "I know that things are really weird and all of this is happening so fast. But I want you to know that we're all a team and that we're here to help you. We need to help each other." Avalon continued to look at Tommy, the expression on her face not changing. "Being a power ranger is great responsibility and it means that we have to work together as a team to stop Rita from taking over the planet."

Avalon now looked even more troubled than she had before. "Who's Rita?" she asked.

"She's an evil space witch that has been sending the monsters down to earth to help take it over," Tommy explained. "This is really hard to explain, but the power that you have…it was given to you for a reason. If Zordon and Alpha trusted you with these powers, then it's something that you have to take seriously."

Avalon raised an eyebrow. A look of offense replaced the confusion. "What makes you think I'm not taking it seriously?"

Tommy studied her for a long moment. The way that she looked back at him, he could see the challenge in her eyes, as if she was daring him to say something that would make her upset. He wondered what it was that was causing her to be this way. She didn't talk to many people in school, she voluntarily hung out with Bulk and Skull, and it seemed like she couldn't care less about the powers that she was given. But he knew that Zordon only mentored someone with their powers when he thought that they deserved it and were an asset to their team. So he knew that there was something about her that Zordon and Alpha trusted, but he wasn't sure so far. She had come and helped them through one battle, and had ruthlessly fought another one of Rita's monsters to help her sister, but other than those few moments, it seemed that she didn't care about anyone but herself.

"I know what its like," Tommy explained, going a different way to get the point across. "New in school and the new guy when it comes to being a ranger, but things do get better. We really do want to be your friends and want to be able to help you when you can. We…just expect that you'll help us too."

"I've helped you already, didn't I?" Avalon asked, raising her arms and then slapping them to her sides. Her face then softened slightly. "Look, I get the point. It's just like with Bailey; you want to be sure that your family, friends, and the people of Angel Grove are safe. I understand that. But that doesn't mean that we have to become buddy-buddy or anything. I like my privacy."

"I just want you to know that we're here for you," Tommy said patiently.

"I got that the first time, Tommo, thanks." Avalon looked down and pulled the bottom of her jacket aside as her pager went off. She made a face and then lifted her head, a look that was a mixture of anxiety and defiance. Tommy was about to warn her about the pager, remember when he had almost had his communicator taken away for it going off in class, but was interrupted. Tommy's communicator rang-in a totally ironic moment-but before he could answer it, the two of them were transported out of the school and to the command center. Avalon fell to the ground on her stomach, her arms stretched out in front of her.

"Wow, that's definitely a sense of déjà vu," she muttered to herself.

"Are you ok?" Billy reached out and grabbed onto her hands, pulling her to her feet.

"I'm good, Smurf, thanks," Avalon wiped off her clothes before looking around the command center. She noticed that Kimberly, Trini, Zack, and Jason were there as well.

"A familiar or humorous name in replacement for or addition to the proper name," Billy noted. "I like it."

Avalon ignored him as she turned to address everyone in the room. "Any reason why I was kidnapped to come here?"

"Av! I can't believe this, this place is _so _cool!" Bailey's voice caused her to freeze, her shoulders flying to her ears. Bailey came from around the corner and raced over to her sister, behind her glasses her eyes were flashing with excitement. Alpha sauntered up behind her. "And check this out, Alpha showed me the weapons that you guys use! They're bonzer!" She grinned at Avalon as her sister looked back at her, completely dumbfounded. "I can't believe that you're a ranger, these guys either!" She continued to gush. "It's so-"

"Ace? Excellent? Bonzer? Cool?" Avalon dropped her shoulders. "I get the point, Bay." She turned back to the other rangers, lightly shaking her head. "Now you get why I don't bring her anywhere." She muttered.

"You all know that as a power ranger you can't let any other people know your true identities," Zordon's voice grabbed everyone's attention. "And so far you've done a good job with that rule. There had been no reason for Alpha or me to doubt you thus far."

"Trust me, none of this was my fault, mate," Avalon defended herself, shooting a quick look over to her sister. Bailey's eyes were so big they looked like they were about to bug out of her head. She looked up at Zordon with mystified wonder and nothing but utmost respect

"Through unusual circumstances, Bailey Mitchell has found out about your real identities," Zordon continued, ignoring Avalon's statement. "But things like this can be a blessing in disguise. From my investigation, it seems like you enjoy science and technology as much as Billy does." Zordon continued.

"We would you like to help me and Zordon with the advancements of the weapons and zords that the rangers use," Alpha said, putting a hand on Bailey's shoulder. He looked towards Avalon as her pager beeped again. Avalon ripped it off of her jeans and let out a low growl, pushing abunch of buttons. Once she was satisfied, she put it back in her pocket, sliding her gaze over to Alpha. "Using your creative mind would greatly help the rangers in their quest against Rita, Zedd, and their minions."

"No way!" Bailey cried.

"Yeah, as in 'no way' you're going to do this!" Avalon snapped.

"Av!" Bailey stomped her foot on the ground, turning to her big sister.

"Don't you 'Av' me."

Avalon and Bailey started to argue with each other as the other rangers watched, laughing lightly. "Looks like things aren't going to be as quiet around here as it used to be." Zack laughed.

Trini shook her head before reaching out and patting him on the arm. "When is it ever quiet around here?" She asked, laughing as well.

"But if she can fight like that with her sister, just imagine what she can do with Rita," Kimberly agreed. She looked at her friends. "I think this is a good idea, guys."

"Either way, we'll be glad to have her as a part of our team." Jason nodded. He cleared his throat, causing Avalon and Bailey to fall silent. He walked over to Avalon and looked down at her for a long moment. Finally, with a serious expression, though kindness radiated from his eyes, he held out his hand. "Can we count on you to be part of our team?"

Billy must have noticed Avalon's hesitation, for he placed a hand on her shoulder. He squeezed it gently. "We really could utilize your talents and prowess to subjugate Rita and Zedd." Avalon pushed Billy's hand off of her shoulder.

"I don't know," She said slowly. She watched Bailey as she moved around Zordon's power tube looking it over. _Probably trying to see where it gets its power from. _Avalon sucked in a breath, shaking her head. She looked back and forth from Jason to Billy and back again. "I mean, would Bailey be safe?"

"While in the command center she will be under the best protection that anyone can create," Alpha reassured her.

"Avalon, will you join forces with our team to defeat Rita once and for all?" Zordon asked.

Avalon locked eyes with Jason, whose hand was still outstretched towards her. She looked at the other rangers as each of them smiled and nodded at her. Tommy caught her gaze last and gave her a warm smile and an enthusiastic nod. He could see the doubt in her face and…something else. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was clear that she wasn't completely sold on the idea. He knew that it wouldn't take long for her to realize that it was the best thing for her to do. His eyebrows lowered when her pager beeped again, this time even longer than it had before. He watched as Avalon's eyes moved towards her pager and her uncertain expression worsened.

_Who needs to get a hold of her so badly? _He exchanged glances with Kimberly, who had the same worried look on her face. _But that's the question in itself. Is she really ready for this kind of commitment? Can we really trust her with the powers that she's been given?_

At that moment, Tommy wasn't sure.

But he was going to find out.

Avalon sucked in another breath. _I swear I'm going to regret this. But I'll do anything to keep Bailey safe. _She reached out her hand and placed it into Jason's shaking it firmly.

* * *

Avalon doodled in her notebook as she waited to get back to work, though she didn't expect it to happen anytime soon. Looking over at Zack, she noticed that he was sitting at the table, headphone in his ears and was bopping along to the tinny music that poured out. Avalon then turned back to Billy and Bailey, who were deep in some sort of conversation about who knows what, as they had been ever since they had arrived at Ernie's.

The day had passed in a blur after she agreed to help the rangers. She could barely pay attention in any of her classes; most of what was said went in one ear and out the other. She couldn't shake what had happened at the command center. She actually agreed to help them, despite what already took up most of her time. However, she couldn't find a reason to say 'no'. All of the pressure…but there was still a good part of her that knew that she was doing the right thing. A part of her deep down knew that there was a reason that she had been decided to become a power ranger. She, personally, didn't see it. She had done anything exemplary. In fact, most people would see her as a 'bad girl' and 'intimidating' though she personally didn't see that herself. She was doing all she could to make sure that her sister had a good life, so skipping some school, missing some classes, and focusing all of her attention on her was worth it in her opinion.

"And so the calibrations can be tested easier?" Bailey hung onto Billy's every word.

Avalon rolled her eyes mockingly. If Bailey noticed, she didn't acknowledge Avalon at all.

It made her wonder why she opted to bring Bailey with her to Ernie's rather than having her stay back at the apartment. Bailey had begged and pleaded to go with her, eventually wearing Avalon down after pointing out that she was going to have to learn about the Command Center and everything that went along with it if she was going to help her sister and the other rangers. Avalon was still against the idea of her little sister working there, but no matter what you told Bailey not to do, she found a way to do it anyway. It was one of the things that Avalon liked and hated about her sister. At this point, it was something that she hated, as all she could hear about now was 'power rangers' this and 'command center' that or 'Billy said this' or 'Billy says that'.

_If Bailey wasn't my sister, I'd kill her._ Avalon smiled a little. She was glad that Bailey was having such a good time though. She had friends in school and was getting stellar grades and now she was getting along with the other rangers, even though she was much younger than the rest of them, by at least seven years. And even though she would rather not have Bailey be dragged into everything with the power rangers, whom she idolized them ever since they had gotten to Los Angeles, she was glad that her little sister was able to stay out of trouble. _Unlike me, who does nothing but cause trouble._

With a light shake of her head, Avalon tuned back into the conversation that Billy and Bailey were having. She couldn't understand half of what they were saying, but she hadn't seen Bailey so into a conversation before.

"So what does it do?" Bailey was asking. "I mean, I get the notion of how the zords are powered, but what really causes the power that it uses?"

"Well, it really all stems from-"

"Can we, _please_, talk about something else?" Avalon threw her hands up into the air. "Anything else? I'd even want to talk about this _stupid_ project." She slapped her hand against her notebook. The slap caused Zack to shoot to attention, dropping his headphones down to his neck.

"Did I miss something important?" He asked, looking at Avalon.

She shook her head. "Not unless you want to sit here listening to Frick and Frack go on and on about how things in the command center work, Twinkle Toes." She gave Zack a pointed stare. "And I mean the science behind all of it, mate."

Bailey blushed as she stuck her tongue out at her older sister. "There's nothing wrong with enjoying science," she said defensively. She looked at Billy out of the corner of her eye before she took her smoothie and took a long sip of it. "Besides, Billy's offering to help me get acquainted with everything, I'm going to need to know it if I'm going to help you guys."

Avalon snorted and shook her head. She reached for her pager, to see if someone was trying to reach her, then clenched her hands into fists when she remembered that it wasn't there. Ever since that morning when she, lost in thought, had slipped up and almost gotten caught by the principal with it, she wasn't going to make a mistake of bringing it out in public again unless she absolutely needed it. For a while she had been so good at keeping it on her, then she got a message when she was sure that she was alone and the principal, who just so happened to be walking through the empty hall at the time, demanded what it was, she talked her way out of getting in trouble about it.

Now she was looking around for a cell phone, just so it would be easier. Plus, she didn't want to have to explain what it was for to any of the others. It was hard enough convincing Zack and Billy to always meet up at Ernie's or one of their houses to work on the project, just to be sure they didn't find out about hers and Bailey's home life. She didn't need to bring the gang into it as well; it would just drive her crazy. But now that Bailey was brought into it, she felt like she was going to completely crack at some point.

_Though this is my fault, _Avalon reminded herself, twirling her pen around her fingers. _I'm the one that's still going around trying to get money for us, which is important. But then I had to go and get wrapped up in this saving the world thing and bring Bailey into it too. _She gazed over at her sister, who was listening intently to what Billy was telling her.

"Why don't I just show you my theories about it the next time we're at the command center?" Billy was suggesting as Avalon tuned back in. "It'll be much more susceptible than trying to explain it all."

The rangers looked around as Zack's morpher went off. Avalon let out a sigh, resting her hand against her forehead for a brief moment before Zack and Billy motioned for her and Bailey to follow them over to a secluded corner of the juice bar.

"Looks like you're getting your wish," Avalon said to Bailey.

"What's going on, Alpha?" Zack asked into his communicator.

"We need you here at the Command Center immediately!" Alpha replied.

"We're on our way," Billy said. He nodded over at Zack and Avalon before the four of them were transported to the Command Center. Jason, Kimberly, Trini, and Tommy were already there, casting worried glances to the viewing globe. "What's going on?"

"It seems that Rita and Zed have started to attack the downtown area," Zordon explained. "You rangers need to split up and stop them before more people get hurt."

"Kim, Jason, Trini and I'll go after Rita's monster," Tommy said, immediately dividing the team up. He then turned to Zack, Billy, and Avalon. "You three go after Zedd's monster. We need to show them that we're not afraid of what they throw at us."

"Right," Billy and Trini agreed.

"Bailey," Alpha turned to Avalon's sister. "You stay here and help us get the zords prepped in case the rangers need their help."

"Got it," Bailey said. She turned and went to a control panel, starting to scan over the button and levers.

"Everyone ready?" Tommy asked, looking around at the group.

"Ready!" Came the unanimous reply.

"All right. It's morphin' time!"

"Stegosaurus!"

"Tiger Zord!"

"Mastodon!"

"Pterodactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Saber Tooth Tiger!"

"Tyrannosaurus!"

* * *

Avalon, Billy, and Zack arrived downtown and immediately started to attack the putties that surrounded them. Avalon rocked back and forth on her feet, her fists by her face as the putties encircled her, waving their arms and legs. She punched and kicked at the putties, causing a few of them to disintegrate pretty quickly. But the more she would defeat, the more would pop up into her face.

"Ugh!"

Avalon was hit in the chest by a kick from one of the putties and crashed to the ground. Another putties moved to kick at her helmet covered head and she quickly did a kick-up back to her feet and aimed a roundhouse kick to the putties' chest.

"Avalon!" Zack appeared at her side, his fists up as well. It was a little jarring for her to see the people that she went to school with in their ranger suits. She wasn't even used to being in one herself, but the extra surge of power kept the thought in the back of her mind as well as making sure that she was keeping her sister safe. "Are you ok?"

"Never better," Avalon replied with a smirk.

"Hiya!" Billy attacked another putty and the three of them turned to Zedd's monster, which continued to run after the civilians that were trying to get away from it. "Whoa!" He cried when he saw it attack a car with a screaming family inside, blocking them from escaping. "Their monsters are getting out of control now."

"Looks like we're going to have to teach them whose boss," Avalon agreed. She held out her hand. "Power Staff!"

"Power Lance!" Billy called.

"Power Axe!"

Their weapons in hand, the Black, Blue, and Orange rangers rushed over to the monster. Avalon brought her staff back and spun it in a quick circle before bring it down onto the monster's side. The monster, enraged, turned and hit Avalon in the chest, sending her flying back to the ground. Billy and Zack then moved forward and started to attack the monster, giving Avalon time to get back to her feet and join the fray. When she moved to attack the monster again, he caught her off guard and slammed into her side, knocking her over.

_What the? _Avalon clutched her side as she writhed on the ground. Placing a hand on her chest, she fought to catch her breath. As she gazed up at the monster above her, she clenched her hand into a shaking fist, nothing short of frustrated. She figured that being able to defeat the monsters would be easy. The last few ones were and she had hardly broken a sweat then. Now she was fighting just as hard as she would with her friends and she was getting her ass handed to her. _I'm not going down without a fight, even if I have to exhaust myself to do it._

"Let's attack together!" Zack declared. "There's no way that he can block all of us!"

"The best defense is an even greater offense," Billy agreed. "If we attack from three different sides, we can wear him out and win!"

"Sounds good to me!" Avalon agreed. She tightened the grip on her staff, clenching her teeth. "His ass is mine!" Jumping high into the air, Avalon swung her staff down onto the monster's head. Turning her head, she said Billy and Zack attacking him from the sides. As they continued to fight, their weapons started to glow.

"Let's do this!" Zack commanded.

"Right!" Avalon said.

"Affirmative," Billy agreed.

The three waited for a moment as their weapons charged up and when they were charged all the way, before striking all at once. The monster let out a scream of agony and fell to the ground, completely destroyed.

"All right!" Zack cheered.

"Now let's go help the others!" Billy said.

The three of them teleported over to the other side of the city where Jason, Trini, Kimberly, and Tommy were doing their best to defeat Rita's monster. As soon as they arrived, Rita's wand came out of the sky and made the monster grow to the size of a building.

"Geez," Avalon muttered to herself, tilting her head back as she watched the monster get bigger.

"Get used to it," Trini said to her. "Rita and Zedd use this as a last resort to be sure that they can try and catch us off guard." She bent her knees and held her arms out as the monster stomped on the ground, causing the ground around them to shake. "But we know how to handle them!"

"We need Megazord power, now!"

The rangers called upon their zords and jumped into the cockpit. Tommy's white tiger zord transformed into its upright Megazord form as Jason's, Kimberly's, Trini's, Zack's, and Billy's zords all came together to create their own Megazord.

Avalon grabbed the controls of her own zord and lined it up next to the other two. "Av!" Bailey's voice suddenly filled her zord. "Your zord can't transform into a Megazord like the others, but it has the ability to attach onto the other Megazords to be used as an extra weapon."

"Sounds good," Avalon replied. She looked up as there was a crashing sound and noticed that the monster had the Megazord and the White Tiger Megazord locked in battle. Sparks were flying as the monster and the zords managed to hit each other. Avalon gritted her teeth as she grabbed onto the controls and caused her zord to start to spin, gathering energy as it did so. "Stega Strike!"

Her zord shot forward and cannoned into the monster. The force of the attack combined with the sword strike that the Megazord gave it, caused it to fall to the ground, rolling around in pain. Tommy then moved his zord forward to attack it as well, giving it a solid hit, too. The monster struggled to get back to its feet to attack them once more.

"You should try using our zord on another one's to see how that'll help," Bailey suggested.

"If you say so," Avalon hesitated. She pressed a white button on her control panel and hers and Tommy's zords reacted to it. His zord detached an arm and her zord took its place, turning into a large, spiky shield. Avalon's eyes widened as her seat started to move. A second later, she found herself in the cockpit of the Tiger Zord, her chair aligned behind Tommy's. "Ace." She gave an impressed smile. "Do what you need to, Tommo." Reaching to the side, she pushed a bright green button and could feel her zord gaining power.

"You got it!" Tommy agreed.

Tommy reached out in front of him and grabbed onto the controls. He moved the zord so Avalon's zord swung and blocked an attack from the monster. Then he positioned her zord so that the spikes from the Stegosaurus slashed the monster across its front.

Avalon gasped as a pain seared through her head. She closed her eyes tightly. The sound of a heart beat filled her head. It was erratic. After a moment of hesitation, she recognized it as hers. Taking a deep breath, Avalon willed her heartbeat to slow down. When se calmed, she got a clear image in her head of the perfect place to strike the monster. Avalon's eyes opened and she watched as Jason piloted the Megazord, the sword hitting the monster in the side. As she thought, the monster pushed them back and hit them across the face, spiraling them to the ground.

"Looks like we're going to have to try a different tactic," Zack said. Avalon could hear the weariness in his voice.

"Why don't we try and up close attack?" Trini suggested. "Give it little space to move away and to anticipate our move."

Avalon finally spoke up. "Hit it in the lower left, that's its weak spot."

"How do you know, Avalon?" Kimberly sounded skeptical. "It doesn't seem like we'll be able to get close enough to attack it."

"I don't know how I know," Avalon admitted. "I…just have a feeling."

"We might as well try it," Billy came to her defense. "It doesn't seem like anything else is working for us."

"Ok." Tommy took the command. "Get around it, close it off on both sides, then we'll attack at once. Move as fast as you can, so it can't figure out what we're doing."

"Got it."

Tommy and Jason moved the zords around so that they fell into a good position for the monster to try and figure out for itself, which one to attack first. It was trapped. Tommy used Avalon's Megazord once more, using the spikes as a blade. When the monster stumbled back he used his Tiger Zord's strongest attack, a beam of energy from the jewel in the tiger's mouth. The Megazord then coupled it with a slash from its own sword and the monster fell to the ground, exploding in a shower of sparks and fire.

"Yes!" Kimberly cheered.

"Nice job, Avalon." Trini said. Avalon couldn't help but smile to herself. She had actually done something to help them. She had been so skeptical about all of it before and now they were able to defeat a monster.

But there was still big things that bothered her; will she ever get to the point where she could trust them with her secret? What was it that she was able to do in the middle of the battle? And would it all be worth it in the end?

"Great job, Rangers," Jason added. "Let's get back to the Command Center."

The Rangers went back to the Command Center, where Bailey, Alpha, and Zordon were waiting for them. As soon as they arrived, Bailey was already bouncing on the balls of her feet, talking a mile a minute about how good of a job they did. Avalon smiled to herself as she took off her helmet and used one arm to hold it to her side, using the other to give Bailey a one-armed hug.

"Thanks for the advice, Bay," Avalon said to her.

"No problem." Bailey gave a proud smile before turning to address the rest of the rangers. "Zordon explained to me that the Stegosaurus zord would have the ability to attach onto other zords to give them a more powerful weapon, and even though it hadn't been tested before, I thought that this moment would be the most plausible moment to take advantage of the situation."

"And you saved our butts," Zack said with a grin. He reached out and slapped her on the shoulder before ruffling her hair. "Good going, kid."

"Well, it was all from Billy's idea, actually," Bailey said. She turned and looked at Billy. "He said that each of the zords had their own source of power, so I figured that if you interchange the zords, it might work." She shrugged modestly. "Now I'm just doing experiments on the rest of Avalon's weapons and the hydraulics on her zords to see if it can be brought up to the same kind of power that your guys' is."

"Uh-oh." Kimberly laughed, though she looked at Bailey with admiration. "Looks like we have another Billy with us."

"Now you know how I feel," Avalon said sarcastically.

"Actually, it could be really helpful for us," Billy spoke up. He walked over and placed a hand on Bailey's shoulder. "If I'm not here, she could use some of my plans or work on her own to make sure that our weapons and zords are up to par." He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "I'd be honored if you could work alongside me and Alpha."

"Cool!" Bailey said with an excited smile.

"Great." Avalon rolled her eyes. "Looks like I'm really stuck with you guys now. Especially Smurf." She moved her helmet to the front and now held it with both hands. "Now I have to continuously come here to make sure that she doesn't blow up the Command Center with one of her crazy experiments."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Trini pointed out.

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Avalon said after a minute.

"You did a really good job when it came to fighting alongside us today," Jason said, turning to her. Behind him, Tommy nodded. "You really stepped up to the plate and wouldn't quit until the monsters were defeated and that's all that we could ask for being a ranger."

_That's almost the exact same thing that Chase told me when I joined them. _Avalon tried not to laugh out loud at the irony. _I hope I didn't miss anything too important today. _She formed a fist with her gloved hand, suddenly overrun by anxiety. She hoped that there was never going to a moment in time where she would have to choose between both of her obligations or else she knew that she would make a very bad decision.

"We're glad to have you as part of the team," Tommy added, holding out his gloved hand towards her. Avalon moved her helmet and grabbed onto his hand, shaking it firmly. It was different than shaking Jason's hand, confirming that she would help them. This time, she knew that they had all accepted her as part of the team, as someone that could help. Before, she could feel the skepticism that radiated off of them. Hopefully she could help them and still be able to provide a good life for her and her sister.

"You rangers need to be careful of keeping Avalon's identity as the orange ranger a secret from Rita," Zordon said, grabbing everyone's attention. "If she knew that she and Bailey were working with you guys, they would be immediate targets for all of their plans. Who knows what she would do if she got any of them in her grasp."

"Don't worry," Trini said. She stepped up next to Kimberly and the two nodded at each other. "We'll do our best to make sure that the two of them are safe."

"So what does that mean?" Avalon asked, brushing her long, dark hair behind her shoulders. "I can't fight along with you guys? I have to run and hide each time Rita or Zedd shoots one of their monsters or the putties down to Angel Grove?" She was a little frustrated. She just agreed to help them with their problems and now she was being pushed back to the sidelines, as a last resort.

Alpha must have noticed her distress, for he put his hands up and shuffled over to her. "Ay yi y yi yi yi! No, Avalon! We just want you to be careful! You and Bailey."

Avalon nodded slowly. "Well, I've done a good job of keeping her out of trouble so far, I think I can do it a little bit longer." She smirked as Bailey gave a light roll of her eyes, though she was smiling.

"We'll make sure that Avalon and Bailey are safe," Tommy confirmed. "I don't know where we would be without them today, but I can honestly say that we're glad that they're a part of our team."

Avalon looked over at Bailey and noticed her proud and excited smile and wondered if she, herself, was ever going to be able to smile like that again. If she would be able to do anything without feeling guilty or stressed ever again. She wasn't sure how long it would take, but she was going to get back to those moments where she could really be herself instead of hiding behind a façade.

It would take a while, but she vowed that she would be able to get to that feeling, even if it killed her.

* * *

Wincing, Avalon followed Bailey into their apartment, turning on the lights as they went. She held a hand to her side, clenching her teeth as she twisted to close the door behind the two of them.

"I'm tired of coming to an empty home," Bailey complained quietly. With that one sentence, the excitement of that day's battle had dwindled away and they were back in their harsh reality. The two of them alone, trying to get by each and every day.

"What do you expect me to do?" Avalon asked warily. "Get married in the next few weeks?" She gave a wicked smile. "I'd suggest Billy, but then _you_ couldn't date him."

Bailey stopped her in her tracks before tossing a quick, "What are you talking about?" over her shoulder. Bailey flushed as she turned back to look at her sister, causing Avalon's smile to grow. "Seriously, I don't know what you're talking about." She shifted her gaze to the ground as her face turned redder. "I don't have a crush on Billy."

"No worries, Bay." Avalon raised a hand. The evil smile fell off of her face and she smirked at her sister as she rubbed her arm. "I'm only kidding. Sheesh, you can take things a little too seriously." Avalon winked at her sister before she moved to walk into the living room.

Bailey reached out and punched her sister on the arm as she passed. "Boofhead!"

"You want to lose that hand?" Avalon warned over her shoulder.

"No," Bailey laughed. She hurried past her sister into the living room and sat down on the couch, reaching for her laptop. She turned it on, the screen lighting up her face. Pushing her glasses up her nose, she looked seriously at Avalon, who sat down in the chair across from her, and then started to dig her finger into the couch cushion. "Well…why don't we just find Mum and Dad and-"

"Good luck with that," Avalon interrupted. "Do _you_ know how to find a woman that's constantly on the run trying to get drug money? Finding Dad would be easier, but he's constantly chasing after Mum, so I doubt that would work too." She closed her eyes and reclined the chair, resting an arm over her face. "Whatever. You're smart; you can probably figure it out."

Bailey was silent for a long moment. "Why don't you want to find them?"

Avalon kept her eyes closed. "I didn't say that, Bay."

"I know, but you're constantly changing the subject when it comes to them and you don't even want to try and find them," Bailey said slowly. At the sound of her voice, Avalon opened her eyes again and looked over at her little sister. "Do you hate them that much?"

Avalon was quiet for a long time. Finally, she lowered the footrest and brought the recliner to its original position. "You may be a genius Bay, but you're too young to understand."

She got to her feet and went to her room, closing the door behind her. Walking over to her bed, her dark brown eyes moved over to the photo that was turned down on her bedside table. Sitting on her bed, she picked it up and glanced at it. It was a picture of her, Bailey, and her parents a long time before. The two girls were up in their parents' arms, smiling widely as their parents smiled proudly. She briefly put it back down, turning her head away, trying to hold back the feeling of wanting to cry. But the feeling got too strong for her to ignore. Avalon sighed as she picked up the picture once more. She studied it before setting it back onto the table and bringing her knees up.

Wrapping her arms around her legs, she rested her forehead against her legs and started to cry.

…

..

.

"So that's the Orange Ranger's secret?" Rita smiled gleefully as she pulled away from her telescope. "She misses her little Mommy and Daddy, well, I'm sure that we can use that to our advantage!"

Rita laughed evilly.

* * *

**A/N: **I hope you guys are still enjoying the story. Thanks to _lizziestrong7135, brankel1, XoxMountainGirlxoX, _and _Guest _for reviewing. Your guys' support means a lot. More stuff is coming up soon. I hope you can wait for it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

**Avalon**


	6. Chapter 6: Catching Up

**Chapter 06**

* * *

"So if you want to go after the orange ranger, why are we wasting so much time watching her?" Zedd demanded, looking over at Rita. She was sitting in front of her telescope, looking down at Earth, a pensive look on her face. "At this point we could have her and would be in the middle of training her to destroy the power rangers."

"You underestimate me, Zeddy," Rita replied. "Why do you think that I've been sending out some of my more…weak monsters?" She stood up and turned away from the telescope. "With their powers to be able to use the Thunderzords, they would be able to destroy them quickly."

"Get to the point!" Zedd snapped. He twisted his 'Z' scepter in his hand, impatiently pacing back and forth as he continued to look down on earth.

Down where all of those _happy _people lived. Down where they constantly went on with their lives, as if nothing was bothering them and nothing could ever happen to them. It made him sick just to think about it. They needed someone to take them over, to show them how things were supposed to go. Even if he and Rita manage to do just that, there was always going to be something that got in the way. If the new ranger was that something, they needed to get rid of her or brainwash her before it was too late. She was taking too long and a plan was already forming in his head.

"So I'm trying to see what her powers are like, whether or not she will go along with them," Rita said. She turned to face Zedd, a maliciously evil smile on her face. "It seems to me that she doesn't want to do this. She already has her other group of friends to deal with. I predict that having to go back and forth is eventually going to run her down. We can attack her then."

"And what do you propose that we do until that moment in time?" Zedd demanded.

"Continue to gauge her powers," Rita said calmly, though there was an annoyed edge to her tone. She glanced at her husband with a look of slight contempt. He crossed his arms back over his chest, waiting for her to further explain her plan. "But we need to keep the other rangers at bay, if we have to destroy them and keep the orange ranger, so be it. The world will be ours."

"And what sort of monster do you think will work this time?" Zedd continued. Rita hesitated in replying. There were so many objects and ideas that they had for monsters and they continued to be defeated each and every time. They needed to think of something else, something that would keep them busy for a long time. "Get out of my way!" Zedd pushed Rita back and stepped up to the barrier of the balcony.

"May I make a suggestion?" Rita and Zedd turned around to see Goldar standing behind them. He walked over to the balcony, his wings gently fluttering behind him. "I have been watching the rangers as you've asked. They all seem ready to welcome the orange ranger with open arms, but she seems hesitant to do the same in return. It might be best to separate her from the others to gauge her power before you take them on. Let me fight her!"

"What? You?!" Rita let out a loud cackle. "If you fought her, you know that the other rangers would stop you before you even got close."

"Please, allow me the honor!" Goldar continued.

"We'll save you for a last resort," Zedd snapped. "Let me think." He looked down on the earth. He got nauseous just watching all of those happy people walk around. There wasn't much interesting going on there, nothing that would be of importance to him. "Hmmm." Letting out a low humming sound, Zedd watched as a teenage girl and guy talked to each other, looking over a newspaper. Getting a closer look, he saw that they were looking at their horoscopes. "That's what I'll do!"

Zedd lifted his scepter and a red bolt of electricity shot down to earth. It crackled and sizzled for a few moments before it returned to the tower in thirteen bolts of lights. Once the lightning cleared, thirteen monsters stood in front of them, all made out from the signs of the zodiac as well as the idea of horoscopes in general; A ram, a bull, twins, a crab, a lion, a maiden, a set of scales, a scorpion, an archer, a goat, a water bearer, a fish, and a mage.

"These are the monsters that will keep the rangers busy as we take over the earth," Zedd explained. "These are the monsters that will destroy the power rangers once and for all!" He raised his scepter into the air and laughed evilly.

* * *

Trini sucked in a deep breath as she spread her arms out in front of her, and then slowly extended them out to her sides. She lifted her right leg, balancing on her left, and extended it out, stretching herself, lowering her body close to the ground. Once she felt that she stretched her legs enough, she brought herself back up into a standing position. Beside her the sound of someone crashing to the ground caught her attention. She looked over and laughed when she saw Billy lying on the ground on his back.

"You make Kata and all of the Praying Mantis Kun Fu seem a lot easier than it is," Billy said. He pushed his glasses up his nose, trying to catch his breath. Trini giggled and leaned over, grabbing onto his hand, pulling him to his feet. Her feet squished into the mat with the force of pulling him up.

"I should. I've been practicing it for years," Trini said. She patted Billy on the shoulder as he smiled. "It's not so hard, you've been improving. Working with Jason on martial arts has been helping you, too." She took a few steps away from him. "Now there's another move that I want to show you that I think could really help. But it needs a lot of balance and core strength, so don't be discouraged if you don't get it as quickly as you want."

Billy nodded. He pushed his glasses up his nose once more and watched as Trini moved through the poses and kicks of the fight move. He took the time to glance around Ernie's. It was as full as it usually was for a weekend, with smiling, laughing, and happy teenagers. It was a bit strange to be able to go through most of the day without some sort of an interruption from Rita and Zedd and their monsters. It was nice to be able to take a breather sometimes. It was times like these he wondered what it was like to still be a normal teenager, to not have to worry about monsters, and being attacked and the threat of being destroyed on a daily basis. It had been a while since all he thought about was school and his future education, his science experiments for fun, and tinkering with new inventions. Now he was constantly thinking of Rita and Zedd and what new weapons he could make or figure out the power source to their zords and accessories.

Sometimes he wondered if it was all worth it, not being able to live a normal life anymore, knowing that his family would be devastated if something happened to him while he was in battle.

"Billy, are you listening to me?" Trini waved a hand in front of Billy's face, hoping to get his attention. He blinked and looked at her, suddenly smiling. Trini frowned in concern. "Are you ok? You don't really seem like yourself."

"I'm fine," Billy said quickly. "I'm just…confused about a lot of things." Trini continued to gaze at him, silently urging him to continue. Billy waved her over to an empty table and the two sat down across from each other. He took a minute before continuing. "I don't understand why there was a need for another ranger. Not that I'm not glad that Avalon is now part of our team, but what could possibly be coming that she was needed? Would we not have been able to defeat Rita and Zedd on our own?" Trini nodded, understanding his concerns. "Then, of course, what sort of power can she bring to us? We already have Tommy's power of light, being the new white ranger and everything."

"Yeah, I get what you mean," Trini agreed. "What else could Rita and Zedd throw our way? What if they finally figure out a monster that we can't destroy and they do take over the earth?" She pulled her hair out of the yellow scrunchie that was holding it back and re-tied it. "I've been wondering the same things too. But you have to stay positive. With Avalon _and _Bailey, we can only hope that we can drive away Rita and Zedd for good."

"But there're still a lot of things that we don't know," Billy continued. "And the not knowing is what's bothering me."

"Billy." Trini reached out and grabbed onto his hand. "We're all in this together. You can't forget that we're a team and that we're going to be sure that we can protect earth to the best of our abilities." She squeezed his hand. "We're going to do this together, right?"

Billy smiled and nodded back. "Right."

"Hey guys!" Kimberly was all smiles as she weaved her way through Ernie's, moving around the tables that were close together. Her light pink, flowery sundress billowed around her as she went. She reached their table as Jason, Zack, and Tommy entered the local hang out behind her.

"Hey!" Trini let go of Billy's hand and stood up to give her a hug. "What's going on?"

"We thought that it would be a good idea to go and have a picnic in the park," Kimberly said. She looked at the boys behind her, who nodded in agreement, bright smiles on their faces as well. "Just take some time to relax and to have fun and to just hang out."

"And it'll also be a good time to explain to Avalon and Bailey everything that we've been through since Rita had first come back to earth," Tommy added. "So they can understand what's going on and how important they are to the team."

"It'll be a good time to get to know them as well," Jason agreed.

"And to put off our homework even more," Zack said. He laughed and Kimberly reached out, lightly hitting him on the arm. Trini smiled and pushed her chair in to the table as Billy stood up as well.

"That sounds like a great idea," she said. "Let's go!" The group started to walk out of Ernie's. Kimberly caught up with Trini and looped her arm through her best friend's. Trini gave a started laugh when she got a good look at the smile on Kimberly's face. "What? What's so funny?"

"I saw you holding hands with Billy," Kimberly said.

"Oh." Trini blushed. "That wasn't anything. We were just talking about everything with our powers and stuff," she explained. With a dismissive wave of her hand, she hoped to turn Kimberly's attention off of her. "It was nothing."

"I know what hand holding is like, and that was not 'nothing'," Kimberly insisted. She squeezed Trini's arm, leaning into her best friend's side. "You have to tell me _everything_ later, ok?"

"Fine." Trini smiled.

…

..

.

Avalon ran a hand over her face, brushing off sea water. Sitting on a surfboard, she bobbed up and down in the water, watching as the waves rolled into the shower. On the beach, Bailey was sitting on a towel, her face shielded by a pair of large sunglasses. She was watching Avalon's stuff, while her sister was getting some surf practice in. Avalon glanced over her shoulder, watching to make sure that Bailey was still sitting on the towel. Her attention was turned back to the ocean when she heard a low rumbling sound. A wave was coming her way.

Smiling to herself, Avalon got down on her stomach, her coconut scented surf wax filling her nose, and started to power her arms through the water. A light spray came up around her as she continued to paddle her arms, going straight towards the wave. When she was close enough, she stuck her right arm in the water and powered her left one, turning herself around in a circle so that she was facing the shore. Once in position, she started to paddle again. Feeling the wave started to lift her up, she paddled harder and leapt to her feet. Shifting her right foot forward, Avalon moved her weight to the front of the board and went screaming down the face of the wave.

Her momentum picked up and she streaked down the bottom of the wave. Bending her knees, her body undulated along with the curve of the wave. Sticking her left arm into the wall of water, she angled herself up the wave and into the air. Grabbing the board with her right hand, she twisted it to the side, her top half going the other way, and let go, bending her knees as she landed back down. A spray of water hit her in the face, she sputtered a little but continued to ride the wave to the shore.

"Good job, Av!" Bailey cried. She was standing at the shore, hands cupped over her eyes as she waited. She was bouncing up and down on her toes in excitement. "I haven't seen you shred up an ace wave like that in a long time!"

"Thanks!" Avalon beamed, her surfboard tucked under her arm. She walked over to her towel and shoved the nose of the surfboard into the sand. Grabbing her long braid, she pulled it over her shoulder and wrung it out, purposefully getting Avalon wet. Bailey squealed and jumped back away from her, her cheeks sunburnt, standing red behind the blue tinted sunglasses. "You're such a wimp, Bay."

"Rack off, Av!" Bailey shoved her.

Avalon's laughter was cut short at the sound of her communicator going off. A chill went down her spine and she fell to her knees, digging through her bag for it. She pulled it out of the front pocket, glancing briefly at her pager and cell phone, hoping she didn't get any other messages from Chase or the others. Seeing that she didn't, she picked up her communicator and brought it up to her mouth.

"What's up?" She asked breathlessly.

"Avalon, can you come meet us in the park?" Zack's voice came over the communicator. "We need to talk to you and Bailey about some stuff."

"Alright, we'll be there soon," Avalon said. She turned to Bailey and started to pack up their things. "C'mon, the guys need us at the park. It might be a monster or something." Bailey hurriedly packed up their things beside her.

"But if it were a monster, wouldn't Zordon have contacted you?" Bailey brought up a good point. So far, whenever it was a monster attack, Zordon or Alpha would have let them know what was going on and where to go. But for all they knew, the command center could have been attacked by something.

"We won't know until we get there." Avalon pulled on a pair of jean shorts and a tie-front orange crop top over her bikini before grabbing her bag and towel, tucking her surfboard under her arm. "This way." She motioned over to the abandoned lifeguard stand that was further down the beach and the two hurried over. Once they were safely behind it, Avalon instructed Bailey to grab onto her arm and she used her communicator to teleport themselves to the park.

"Avalon! Over here!"

Avalon and Bailey headed towards the voice and saw Jason waving the two of them over. Avalon let out a sigh of relief when she saw that there wasn't a monster anywhere and they walked over. Once reaching them, she dropped her surfboard to the ground. "What's going on?" Her eyes scanned the food that was spread out on the blankets around them. "We having a picnic or something?"

"Ace!" Bailey cried. She switched out her sunglasses for her glasses and plopped down on a blanket next to Tommy. "I'm starving!" Avalon slowly sat down in the space that was left over between Jason and Billy, crossing her legs. She tilted her head to the side, eyes scanning the food, and lifted her hands, starting to unbraid her hair.

_I wonder how much of this stuff we can take home. It'll take up the time it would take to find more money and get to the grocery store. _Avalon felt guilt the second the thought crossed her mind. Here she was, invited on a picnic, and she was thinking about how she was going to get most of the food back home for her and Bailey to keep from having to find more money later. It would be selfish if it wasn't a reality they always had to face.

"Help yourselves," Trini offered. "We have plenty. Besides, it's probably one of our few days where we can just hang out instead of having to worry about monster attacks and everything."

Jason handed Avalon a plate before he started to fill up his own with the assortment of food. Bailey got up on her knees and started to pick up everything that was placed in front of her, effectively loading her plate with so much food that it started to bend under the weight. Tommy laughed when he caught sight of it and leaned over, ruffling Bailey's hair. "Looks like you've got a big appetite. Take as much as you want."

"But she might get sick," Kimberly protested. "With all of that food?"

"She can put it away, trust me," Avalon commented lazily. Bailey stuck her tongue out at her and Avalon did the same in reply. The rangers laughed and started to dig into their food. "So…you only wanted us to drop by for some lunch?"

"Well, we wanted to catch you up with everything that's been going on, too," Jason admitted. He crossed his legs, resting the edges of his plate on his knees. He was silent for a moment. "When everything first started, we were just five teenagers that wanted to have fun and do whatever we could to do it. But then there was a earthquake one day and we were teleported to the command center." He smiled a little. "Everything was so strange at first, we didn't know where we were or what happened or why there was a robot that was able to talk to us."

"Billy and Jason seemed to be the only ones that were excited about the whole thing," Trini added. "for different reasons. Billy wanted to know how Alpha worked and really wanted to try and take him apart to figure out how." She laughed to herself, causing Billy to look a little embarrassed. "And after Zordon told us about how we were able to morph into the power rangers, Jason was the one that thought that we should go ahead and do it."

Avalon's eyebrows rose. She looked over Zack, Kimberly, Trini, and Billy with surprise. "You guys didn't want to do it?" When they shook their heads, she nodded slowly. _So they weren't the only ones that were worried about the whole thing. _"What made you change your minds?"

"When we tried to walk all the way back to Angel Grove, putties attacked us," Jason started the explanation again. Avalon turned to him, picking at her lunch as she listened to the story. "At first, they beat us badly, but when we put our minds to it, we were able to fight them back. Then Rita sent out Goldar and we morphed into the power rangers to be able to defeat him." He shrugged. "Of course that wasn't the way that things were going to stay."

"So she started to send out monsters that could get bigger?" Avalon nodded slowly.

"Affirmative." Billy now grabbed her attention. "Rita got smart and figured that if we could fend of Goldar while we were the power rangers, then it would be harder for us to do so if we were just that and her monsters got stronger."

"Which is where the power of our zords came in," Trini concluded.

"But then where does Tommy come in?" Bailey mumbled. Her cheeks were bulging with food. Her eyes being bigger behind her glasses and her big cheeks made her look like a chipmunk. The rangers all laughed at her when they caught sight of her appearance.

Tommy's smile slowly faded. He reached up, scratching at his forehead. Kimberly laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. He placed his free hand on top of hers and smiled back at her before addressing Bailey and Avalon. "I was new at school and Rita figured out that I was a skilled martial arts fighter. She wanted to use me to defeat these guys." He licked his lips. "So she kidnapped me and gave me the powers of the green ranger. For a while, I was able to defeat them and took control of their zords. I destroyed the command center and even gave Alpha a virus." He shook Jason's shoulder. "But he destroyed my sword of darkness and Rita's magic was broken."

"For a while he fought along our side while he was still the green ranger," Zack said. He paused to take a bite of potato salad before continuing. "But Rita used a Green Candle to take his powers away."

Avalon's eyebrows lowered. _Whoa. You can get your powers away and your zord taken over? I thought that all of this stuff was pretty much invincible. _Her hands slowly curled into fists and she thought about the decision she had made. Was it now worth it? Or did she make a big mistake?

"Rita then kidnapped all of our parents in return for the Dragon Dagger, which Tommy used, and our power zords. But Goldar kept the power coins. But Jason showed that he still held onto the dragon power coin, which was Tommy's. We needed Tommy to use his powers to help us get ours back. Tommy's powers were eventually drained and he couldn't use them anyore. We all thought that it was the last that we would see of Tommy, but Zordon and Alpha were able to create new powers for him, making him the White Ranger."

"Ever since then we've continuously battled Rita, Zedd, and their monsters to be able to save Angel Grove and to keep them from taking over the earth," Kimberly said. She then smiled over at Avalon and Bailey. "And with you guys helping us now, we can be sure to keep that promise. We can defeat Rita and Zedd with you on our side."

Avalon gave a fleeting smile. "But what if we can't do it?"

"Don't think like that, Av!" Bailey cried. "It's been scientifically proven…the law of attraction. If you think negative thoughts, then you'll bring negativity onto you. You have to be positive, you can do it."

"I'm being realistic, not negative," Avalon said. "There's a difference." She placed her plate on the ground and rested her chin in her hands. Briefly closing her eyes, Avalon thought of everything that had been going on lately. This was bigger than her and Bailey, she had to stop being so selfish. If she wasn't needed, she wouldn't have been brought into this whole mess. She needed to stop being so selfish and actually start working with these guys. There were more lives at stake than hers and Bailey's. _But then there's what you're doing with Chase and them, to be sure that you have a good life and that no one finds out your secret. Now you put this secret on top of that. You're such a boofhead, Avalon._

"Don't worry if you get stressed or freak out," Zack said kindly. "You have a built in family with us. We have your back." Avalon's smile turned to a frown.

Zack studied her.

He didn't get it.

It seemed that she was warming up to them a little bit, especially since she agreed to join the rangers. Even just when they were talking she seemed to be loosening up a little bit and liked being around them. Now there was a cool air around her. He glanced at the others; they must have felt it too, for there was a bit of an awkward silence. Zack looked over at Tommy and Jason to see what they would do. He always went to them for guidance, Jason had always been a leader to him, and now even though Tommy was the leader for the rangers in general, he saw how well the two of them could work together, in battle and out. What were they thinking of the whole situation? They were just as open and welcoming to Avalon as everyone else was, and they seemed to be making a bit of progress. They were trying their hardest and nothing was working. There was a big brick wall that was keeping Avalon from completely joining their team. She was even cold and standoffish when they were at school. He didn't get what was about Bulk and Skull that had her so willing to hang out with them and even seem happy to hang out with them.

"Just know that we have faith in you," Billy added, placing a hand on her arm. Avalon jerked her arm away, as if she had been burned. Her frown deepened, a million confusing thoughts running through her head. It wasn't making anything easier. Letting out a slight growl, Avalon rubbed her hands over her face.

_This is going to be harder than I thought_. She looked at her feet and sighed. She worked on her own. She would work with the group if she had to, but knew that when it all came down to it, she would figure out her own ways to deal with everything. _At least they were nice enough to invite us to this picnic. _She removed her hands from her face, the smile returning.

Picking up her hot dog, she took a bite and listened as the rangers told her stories of their battles. She always told Bailey not to sweat the small stuff and to live life in the moment. And that was exactly what she was going to do.

* * *

**A/N: **Story picks up from here, hope you liked it ladies and gents. Please vote on my new (more straightforward) poll on my profile it's _Who would you like Avalon to end up with?_

-Avalon


	7. Chapter 7: Science Experiment

**Chapter 07**

_Science Experiment_

* * *

_"I'm going to make a batch of brownies."_

_"Being a power ranger means that you have to learn how to work on a team."_

_"What if it's a side effect to your powers? Though, I'm not sure that's entirely plausible. The rest of us have only felt an increase in strength."_

Avalon groaned and rubbed her temples with her fingers. How much longer was she going to have to deal with the voices? She had an idea what it was, having it happen a few times here and there, but it was starting to take its toll. Who wouldn't feel like they were going a little nuts because they could hear things other people couldn't? Bailey always said that she was a little crazy, maybe there was a bit of truth in it. Bailey was a genius; she could prove you wrong just as easily as she could be like an eleven year old kid.

_Focus Av, you need to get this done. _Avalon leaned over the large sheet of paper that was in front of her, scanning it. There were blueprints of a neighborhood and what looked like floor plans of the houses in the same area. Twirling a pen in her hand, Avalon looked over the blueprints, her brown eyes scanning each house. She needed to have it memorized for the next time that she met up with Chase, Skye, and Summer. If they were going to do more hits, then they needed to be sure that they were going to the best houses and had to little to no chance of getting caught. They couldn't take any chances.

_So we've gone here, here, and here…_Avalon put a large 'X' in each of the boxes that represented houses. Sighing, she rested her chin in her hand. Looking it over, she realized that the houses were too close. If they were going to reduce the chance of getting caught, they were going to have to spread out a little. _I'm sure there are more rich neighborhoods around here, we should start going there. _Hearing footsteps coming down the hallway, Avalon quickly scrunched the paper up like an accordion and shoved it, notebooks, and pens underneath the table.

She sat back down just as Bailey walked into the living room. She glanced at Avalon curiously. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Avalon said calmly. She watched as her sister beelined to the kitchen and started to pull out different sized pans and bowls. "What are you doing?" Bailey's voice filled her head and she answered before her sister could.

"I'm going to-"

"Oh, make a batch of brownies," Avalon cut in. She crossed her legs, twirling a piece of thread around her finger. She watched the tip turn purple before unwinding it again. All of her shirts were starting to become unthreaded. _We need to get some more clothes soon. That's always the biggest expense, clothes and food. Not including paying rent. _Avalon reached up and pulled her hair back into a ponytail, fastening it with a dark orange scrunchie. _"_Who are they for?"

Bailey paused, holding up a cooling rack. As the seconds passed, her brown eyes continued to widen behind her glasses. "Av," she said slowly. "How did you know that I was going to make brownies?"

Avalon chewed on her bottom lip. Should she tell her? She usually told her sister everything; she was the only one that was constantly there for her, no matter how many mistakes she made. Bailey was even helping her and the other angers at the command center and was a great help in the last battle that they had. It seemed like she was finding her niche as well, being such a smart girl at such a young age made it hard for her to make friends and to be taken seriously. She was picked on a lot as she was growing up, but managed to tune it out the best she could, holding her head up high and continuing to do what she did best.

"Didn't you mention it before?" Avalon tried to push the attention off of her. Feeling Bailey's gaze burn a hole in her back, Avalon stuck out her foot and pushed her blueprints further under the table. "I'm sure you did. Last night when we were watching TV, yeah?"

"No." Bailey shook her head, her pigtails hitting her in the face. "I never said that I was going to make them. I just thought about it this morning." Once she had all of her utensils, she pulled eggs, flour, butter, milk, and brownie mix from the pantry.

"Well, who are they for?" Avalon hoped that her sister wouldn't notice she was trying to change the subject.

Of course that wasn't possible; the two girls noticed practically everything. Their father did say that they were always perceptive. So much so that Avalon was aware there was something wrong with her mother even before she knew what drugs were. Your mother wasn't supposed to be hauled up in her room all day and only come out when she went out at night to get more. The woman that she remembered to be incredibly beautiful, happy, and lively had turned into a recluse. The days of snuggling up to her mother to read a book or to watch TV, and even talk about school were long gone. Their mother was gone and their father was gone and there was nothing they could do about it but wait until they heard something from one of them.

"You didn't answer my question," Bailey pointed out.

"Neither did you." Avalon got up and walked over to the kitchen. Pulling out a stool, she sat down and watched as Bailey made brownies. "Is it for a boy?" She stuck her finger in the brownie mix and placed it in her mouth, the sweetness overloading her senses. "Do you like someone at school?"

"No, it's not for anyone at school," Bailey murmured. She tried to hide her face by holding up the cook book, but Avalon could see the blush that was rising on her cheeks.

"So who's it for?"

"Av!" Bailey stomped her foot. "Can't I just make some brownies without getting asked a billion questions?"

"Abigail, can't you answer a question without getting pissy about it." Avalon laughed. Reaching over to punch her on the arm, Bailey tilted her head down to concentrate on the creation of the desert with a mumble of 'don't call me Abigail'. "Geez, sorry _Bailey_, I didn't mean to upset you."

"No worries," Bailey said. She quickly stuck her tongue out at her sister and Avalon did the same before smiling.

She sighed, lacing her fingers together. Keeping something from her sister, when it could get worse before it got better, was probably not a good idea. Not when they were already so deep in something that was so big. "Bay…I knew that you were going to make brownies because I heard you say it."

"I already told you, I never-"

"I know," Avalon interrupted. "You didn't tell me. But I heard you say it. I heard it, in my head." She took a deep breath, holding her sister's gaze. "I have a sense of what people are going to say before they say it. I can…I don't know, I can hear it….I can see some things too…It's not the first time. Is there a word for it?"

"Clairvoyance," Bailey dutifully replied. "It's used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses." She started to whisk the brownie mix. "In other words it's a form of extra-sensory perception."

"Thanks, Webster," Avalon snorted.

Clairvoyance? It sounded so weird. She never thought that it was a real thing. She had always been so skeptical about things that couldn't be explained. Hell, she was a Power Ranger and if she hadn't had read about them in the newspaper for days, she wouldn't have believed that either.

"That's not all," Avalon continued. She motioned over to the cabinet and pointed out a pot that she wanted Bailey to hand her. It was a large pot that could be used for corn, spaghetti, or if you wanted to boil a turkey, stainless steel. Bailey handed it to her and Avalon placed her hands on the sides of the pot. Bringing her hands together, she crushed the pot, melding the edges together as if it were hot metal being bent into shape. Bailey's mouth dropped open. "I can run, like, _really_ fast, too."

"Wow." Bailey's eyes lit up. "I've heard about 'super humans' before but I didn't think that my sister was one of them."

"Uh, I'm a power ranger, what d'you expect, mate?"

"Not this." Bailey suddenly looked thoughtful, rubbing her chin. "I need to document this. We need to figure out why this is happening." Placing her hands on her hips, she started to pace the kitchen. "Have any of the other rangers had this happen to them?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Avalon said. "They haven't said anything. But I haven't told them either, so…"

"We should talk to Billy about this," Bailey suggested. She pushed her glasses up her nose. Avalon looked at her skeptically. "Or go see Zordon and Alpha. Those three are the only ones that seem like they'll be able to give even a tiny bit of a logical explanation. You want answers don't you?" Avalon slowly nodded. "Then let's go!"

Avalon looked at her, her eyes narrowing. Bailey was a bit more excited than she thought she was going to be. Even more so than being able to do a sort of an experiment, to figure out why this was happening to her sister. There was something else going on.

"Ok." She finally said. "I'll go find Billy's address."

"I already have it," Bailey interrupted her. Avalon froze over the stool, mid way in getting off of it. She looked like she was trying to hatch an egg. "What?" Avalon continued to look at her. "Av. What?" Huffing, Bailey crossed her arms over her chest. "I have all of the rangers' addresses; you never know when you're going to need it.

Avalon slowly smiled. "Ok. Let's go." She held out her arm, using her free hand to hold onto her morpher. "Hold on tight."

* * *

Billy lifted a welding mask off of his forehead and replaced his glasses, frowning at the steaming hunk of metal and wires that was lying on the workbench in front of him. Who knew that a simple experiment to enhance their weaponry and machinery could be so difficult? He had major setbacks before, but this one took the cake. Sighing, Billy wiped sweat off of his forehead and turned back to the notes that he had sitting by him. He probably had to start all over again.

The door to the house opened and bright light filled the garage. "Billy, why don't you open the garage door? It's so dark in here!" His mother exclaimed.

"Don't worry, Mom, I have all of the means necessary to properly protect the functions of my eyes as well as to get my experimentations done," Billy said. He smiled, wiping his hands off on a rag. "The minimum of light makes it easier to see if the sensors I'm working on are fluctuating, they'll light up if a sufficient charge is going through."

"Well be careful," Mrs. Cranston cautioned. She started to step to the side, but then turned back to her son. "Oh and you have some friends waiting for you. Shall I send them out here?"

Billy nodded. As his mother left the doorway, he pressed a button on the wall and the garage door started to open. Hearing footsteps, he turned back around to see Avalon and Bailey walk into the garage. Bailey's eyes widened and she hurried over to his desk to look at his work in progress. "Salutations Avalon, Bailey."

"Hey." Avalon nodded her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket. She glanced around the garage. "Are you hard at work? Did we interrupt you?"

"I was just taking a break," Billy replied. He nodded over to the work bench. "I was hoping that I could make a new power grid for some of our weapons, but it hasn't been working well lately. If we give more power to our zords…" he ran a hand over his face, seemingly lost in thought. "Our fight against Rita and Zedd may get harder as times go on and they adapt to us. We need to be able to use every means that we can to beat them."

Avalon nodded. "I'm impressed, Smurf," she admitted. "The fact that you're able to do so much, I mean, you made my communicator and everything." She held up her wrist. "That was you, right? You made all of them?"

"Once I realized the significance to the power grid and morphing grid that Alpha and Zordon were using at the command center, it was only a matter of 'ticking the system', so to speak," Billy said, using air quotes around the words. He paused, glancing at her. "I hope that wasn't too confusing."

"I get the gis-"Bailey interrupted Avalon, suddenly appearing by her side.

"Don't worry if she doesn't get it, it's hard to explain things in a way that's easy for everyone to understand, sometimes." Bailey smiled at Billy and he smiled and laughed in reply.

"It can be frustrating sometimes," he agreed, kindly. He glanced back and forth between the two girls. "So what brings you by?"

"Right." Avalon shuffled her feet. All of a sudden, she wasn't sure whether or not she should tell him. It seemed really ridiculous. There were no such things as clairvoyants as far as anyone was concerned. Being a power ranger was strange enough. Besides, what if he laughed at her? She barely knew him as it was and now she was trusting him to keep this quiet from the other rangers until they got a sure answer. "You know what? No worries. Never mind." She held up her hands, starting to back away from him. "We just wanted to say 'hi' and now we're gonna go. C'mon, Bay."

"But Av, don't you want to tell him about-"

"There's nothing to tell him."

"Are you serious?"

"As a heart attack. Now _let's go_."

"But-"

"Bay!"

Billy watched the back and forth between the two sisters with a small smile on his face. It was obvious that they were really fond of each other, Avalon had come quickly and fought ruthlessly against the Savage Sardine when she found out that her little sister was in trouble. But their bickering was as normal as it was for them to get along. Clearly, they both had each other's interest at heart.

"Excuse me," Billy cut into the arguments. "Is there something that you need to tell me?"

"No.""Yes." The sisters looked at each other with contempt.

Billy studied the situation and took a breath, steadying himself to address Avalon. He had only known her for a short while and could already tell that she was someone that was stuck in her ways, choosing to go by what she believed in. He could see how she was going to be a good asset to the team, but also how it could be a bit dangerous if she didn't learn how to change. "Being a power ranger means that you have to learn how to work on a team." He felt silent, hearing Avalon finish the sentence with him. "How did you-?"

"That's what we want to tell you," Bailey said. "Avalon's' a clairvoyant…she knows things that are gonna happen before they do. She can…sense voices and things that are going to go wrong."

Billy's mouth dropped open. He wasn't completely against the idea, but science could easily disprove that. He had seen some crazy things since becoming a power ranger, he couldn't rule anything out. No matter how outlandish. He studied her; long dark hair, dark eyes, a small smattering of freckles around her nose and a confident attitude brought together her seriousness. He realized that it was true.

He racked his brain, trying to think of a reasonable explanation. "When did you first notice that you were able to do it?"

Avalon crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side. "I reckon sometime after I was given my powers," she said.

Billy nodded. "Let's think about it logically. What if it's a side effect to your powers?" He frowned, running a hand through his hair. "Though, I'm not sure that's entirely plausible. The rest of us have only felt an increase in strength as well as our fighting ability."

"So what do you think it is?" Bailey raised a finger in the air. "I think that it's a possible anomaly or a mutation."

"It's possible," Billy agreed.

"Yeah, but then why would it only be me that has to deal with it?' Avalon demanded. "Can you two smarty-pants answer that?!" Her eyes moved back and forth from Billy to Bailey and back again as she waited for an answer. She realized that she had been doing that a lot lately; waiting for answers, waiting for directions, waiting to be told what to do. Startled, Avalon blinked and dropped her arms. _Since when did I start to wait for people to tell me what to do? When did I start becoming a pushover?_

"Did anything significant happen to when you were still in Australia?" Billy got her attention.

_You mean apart from my mum getting in drugs and dad chasing after her? _Avalon shook her head. "Not that I can recall, Smurf. Why, what do you think it is?"

Billy was silent for a long time. "I think, maybe, if the mutation theory doesn't pan out. I think we may have found a new power source."

"And how does me being able to read minds, run fast, and lift crazy amounts of weight have a thing to do with a new power source?" Avalon stared hard at him.

"That, Avalon, is what we have to find out."

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for the shorter chapter, I hope you guys liked it anyway. Please answer my poll on my profile: _Who do you want Avalon to end up with?_. Thanks to _Guest, Guest, brankel1_, and _XoxMountainGirlxoX_ for reviewing. Is the pacing Ok? Should I show more of the other rangers? Am I at least keeping the other rangers in character?

-**Avalon**


	8. Chapter 8: Rita's and Zedd's Horoscope

**Chapter 08**

_Rita and Zedd's Horoscope_

* * *

"You're right Billy, this is something that we haven't seen with power rangers before," Zordon said, looking down at the blue ranger. "The other abilities that Avalon has…we need to be sure now more than ever that Rita and Zedd don't get to her or the rest of you rangers. If they knew of the abilities they may try even harder to capture you all to see if it's something that we can exploit out of all of you."

"What do you want us to do?" Billy placed his hands on his hips as he started to pace the command center. "Keep an eye on her at all times? I don't think that she would be very pleased with that." His eyebrows rose behind his glasses and he smirked a little bit. "Then again, I don't think any of us will be particularly pleased with the news. That would be put even more pressure on us than we already have, though she's new at this."

"Ai yi yi yi yi, we're not saying that you all have to _watch_ her," Alpha said quickly. "We're just saying that there are some things about her that you don't know." He turned to Zordon, who looked back at him quietly. Billy glanced at the two of them; it wasn't that strange for them to keep something from him and the other rangers until they really needed to know it. However, having it to be news about the new member of their team, things were very complicated. "You need to give her some time to get adjusted; this isn't something that's easy for everyone."

"I'm just saying that I don't understand how the rest of us could have transitioned into it's so easily and were so willing to help out." This was the first time that Billy outright expressed his feelings of the whole situation."We're all willing to help save the world from Rita and she doesn't want to do it."

"Avalon and Bailey have gone through some experiences that could have made them jaded in life," Zordon explained. "Just give them some time." He changed the subject, sensing Billy's distress and frustration. "But with this new power source, it's possible. The stegosaurus powers had been untouched since they were first created. The teams that we've had years ago, the stegosaurus ranger had only appeared a couple of times and we hadn't had been able to get a good grasp on what it could do. It's possible that it had been corrupted over the years that it had laid dormant. But it just might be the power that we need."

"Is there anything that you need me to do?" Billy took his glasses off and rubbed his nose and rubbed his face.

"You've done enough for today, Billy," Alpha said. He placed a hand on Alpha's shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Don't worry about anything here. Zordon and I can handle everything here for now. When we need you we'll call you back."

Billy hesitated for a moment. Something this big and they wanted him to leave? He just hoped that they knew what they were doing. He nodded, letting out a sigh, and teleported out of the command center. Alpha and Zordon waited until they were sure he was gone, watching him on the viewing globe as he arrived at the park, meeting up with the other rangers as they played a game of basketball. They were a bit surprised to see Avalon and Bailey there as well, though Bailey seemed like she was trying to play while Avalon sat in the grass, playing around with a guitar.

"It's going to take a long time, Zordon," Alpha said. He turned back to the mystical being that floated in the power tube behind him. His eyes roved around the command center, thinking of everything that they had managed to do over the years while working with different teams of rangers.

They had seen them come and go, managing to keep the city and the world safe. It was the first team that they had a team of teenagers on their side and while Alpha was worried about them at first, he was pleasantly surprised to see that they were doing a great job with the powers that they were given. He could understand the anxiety that Billy had. He had it too when Zordon told him to teleport the orange ranger to the command center the first time. Seeing how she quickly dismissed everything, he was surprised, again, when she decided to keep the powers, instead of passing on it. When she fought, _really fought_ for the first time, it was evident that she was going to be a good addition to the team.

"I just hope that she can see it for herself and make a decision," Alpha said to himself. He extended his hands in front of him, wiggling his fingers. "Ok, Zordon, if we're going to find this new power source, we're going to have to start looking now."

* * *

"This is the perfect time that we can see how these new monsters are going to work out," Rita said, rubbing her hands together gleefully.

"Not yet!" Zedd snapped. He turned away from earth and trained his eyes on his wife. "You don't seem to understand the method behind my plans. We can't go and attack her yet, not with the fact that there may be a new power source that we have to get to before the rangers can!" He twisted his Z-scepter in his hands. "Patience, my dear, patience. We already know the secret that she's keeping from her friends."

"Yes." Rita laughed gleefully. "Because those brats don't know that we've been watching her for so long, we can be able to exploit everything about her." She started to walk towards the balcony, her footsteps echoing around her lair in a crescendo of confidence. "The other rangers will lose faith in her and their confidence will be shaken, making it that much easier for us to defeat them."

"The first thing we need to do is get her alone," Zedd said. He turned his head to the side when he heard footsteps coming their way and saw Goldar had entered the room. "What do you want? We have important things that Rita and I need to discuss."

"Please, your liege, let me fight the rangers," Goldar said. He bowed his head. "I know that I can help you. Let me distract them and then you can fight against the orange ranger and see how well she matches up against the power you through their way. If they're apart, she won't stand a chance!"

"We've tried that many times before, and as you can see, it hasn't worked yet!" Rita snapped.

Zedd held out his arm. Goldar had a point. If they did get her alone…at the best time…then things could go their way. They could overpower her, get her to the lair, and get her over onto their side. It almost worked with the green ranger; it almost worked with the pink ranger. The red ranger had been in their clutches before, to save the two of them, and even the blue ranger had fallen under their spell at one point. But each and every time, they were outsmarted and had gotten even stronger. They had their friends to help them the whole time. But now…the orange ranger clearly wasn't as enthusiastic about what was going on with the other rangers, she was going to be an easy target.

_Maybe not so easy exactly, but a challenge. And if that new power source is real, then we need to get to her and it first. _Zedd mulled it over, working to figure out what to do. "Looks to me like we're going to get some insight into the horoscope." He stamped his scepter on the ground. "Get over here!"

The monsters that represented the zodiac all came out into the clearing and stood in front of Zedd. He studied them all; they were going to be his finest group of monsters yet, each one stronger than the next. He had seen the power that they could dish out, the rangers wouldn't know what hit em'. He just needed to be sure which one would be the best to use as the first monster against them all. If it was too weak, compared to the rangers, then it would be a bad start. Too strong and he was sure that they could come back and defeat the rest of the monsters in a matter of minutes.

"Well?" Rita spat, breaking the silence. "What are you waiting for?"

Zedd shushed her with one sharp look. She wouldn't understand. Ever since she was released from her space dumpster, she had seen nothing but failure after failure. Zedd wasn't a failure; he was the Emperor of Evil. Darkness coursed through his veins like ice water, any sense of compassion was ebbed away into nothingness, a black hole situated where a heart would be. Decimation, extermination, and extinction were all that filled his mind on a daily basis, encroaching on every thought, every movement, every breath.

Zedd's eyes shifted. His fingers twitched on his scepter, assessing the monsters. Curling his fingers over the scepter, he lifted it and pointed to one of the monsters standing in the middle. It stepped forward, smoke coming from its nostrils.

The ram.

Perfect.

Pivoting on his heel, Zedd sauntered over to his wife, each step was calculated, and stood in front of her. For once in her life, Rita was silent, waiting for Zedd to speak first before opening her mouth. "Arieselle is the perfect first monster to use." A red pigment shone all over his body, rising and falling with each breath he took. "With this zodiac, we're going to take over the world!"

Rita's teeth sparkled as her lips pulled back. This was what they had been waiting for, the time that they could finally get one up over the rangers. Their morale would be crushed, their spirit dashed, and evil could finally take over. "I love you!"

"I love you, too!" Zedd replied.

"Ugh, I think I'm going to be sick!" Goldar mumbled.

"SILENCE!" Zedd roared. Pointing his scepter at Rita's henchman, he watched as Goldar lifted his hands and took a step back. "DON'T YOU UNDERMINE ME! We're going to do things my way and you're going to follow all of my instructions."

Goldar hesitated. "Yes, your liege."

"Now…" Zedd pointed his scepter at Earth. "Let's see what this monster can really do."

* * *

The notes dripped off of the guitar as Avalon's fingers deftly moved over the strings on the acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar in her lap meshed against the curve of her body. The notes of the song faded away and Avalon dropped her hands. Avalon's fingertips brushed the grass as she stretched out. The delicate blades, hardy from recent rains, felt like eiderdown. She tilted her head back and smiled at the blue sky.

"Is that a smile I see on your face?" Zack leaned forward and poked her cheek. Avalon swatted his hand away, turning her head to the side. "You? Smiling? Never thought I'd see the day." He crouched down beside her. "You having fun?"

"I am, actually." Avalon even surprised herself to say that. Zack's smiled widened. He followed Avalon's gaze and laughed when she saw Jason, Billy, Trini, Tommy, Kimberly, and Bailey all playing basketball. It didn't look like they were playing right, as each person managed to get the ball, and no one tried to cover them when they tried to take a shot. "Looks like Bailey's having a good time, too."

"Oh yeah, she's awesome!" Zack agreed. "A really cool kid. She seems to be adjusting to everything well."

_Better than me. _Avalon frowned.

Zack must have noticed the look on her face, because he put an arm around her shoulders. "Relax, we're going to help you the best we can. What are friends for?"

Avalon looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Not replying, she got up and started to walk over to the basketball court. Zack trailed after her, then jumped in front of her and started to dance around. Startled, Avalon stopped walking, her dark brown eyes moved back and forth as she watched him dance around. After a couple of seconds the corners of her mouth twitched. Peals of laughter broke out of her which she tried, in vain, to hide behind her hands.

"That's what you have to do!" Zack grabbed onto her shoulders and shook her. "You have to loosen up! Stop taking things so seriously!"

Avalon nodded.

"Good. Now come on, let's have some fun!" Zack looped his arm through Avalon's and the two headed onto the basketball court. Jason was bouncing the ball by his side. Zack darted in front of him and blocked Jason and Avalon grabbed onto the ball. She bounced it a few times, dodging Tommy's outstretched hands and took a shot. Everyone burst out laughing when the ball didn't get close to reaching the basket.

"God, I suck at this sport," Avalon said.

"You just need some practice," Trini said kindly.

"A lifetime of practice wouldn't help her with her playing ability," Bailey said. Her upper lip pursed, she placed her hands on her hips, and leaned forward. "She just sucks that bad."

"Well, I'm good at surfing and playing the guitar, so there's that." Avalon dismissed the comment with a wave of her hand. She spoke to Kimberly, though she watched as the guys stated to play a real game of basketball against each other. The girls converged to the side of the court out of harm's way in case it got intense. "By the way, Kimberly, your guitar has a crack in its neck."

"Yeah." Kimberly sighed. "I've been meaning to get a new one, but I don't really know which kind to get. All of the ones around here are for guys; the necks are too big. Or it's not the style I want." She sucked her lips back into her mouth, waving her hands. "It just doesn't feel right!"

"Yeah, I getcha," Avalon agreed. "Um." She kicked at the ground. "Do you guys…want to go to the mall with me? We can hang out or whatever. Look at some guitars…" She kept her gaze on the ground as Kimberly and Trini exchanged surprised glances. They then relaxed into warm smiles.

"Yeah, that sounds really fun," Trini said. "Thanks for inviting us."

"No worries." Avalon shrugged her gaze still on the ground. The girls continued to watch as the guys played basketball for a while. At some point they got tired and everyone convened to the shade to take a break. "So how long have you been playing the guitar?" She stretched out onto her side in the grass, holding her head up with her palm. "Most people know start to try it and then give up after figuring out how long it takes to really learn."

"Oh, for a while." Kimberly shrugged modestly. "I mean, I'm not even really that good."

"Don't listen to her." Trini put an arm around Kimberly's shoulders and smiled at her best friend. "She's great," she said to Avalon.

"And her singing is just as amazing," Tommy added. He smiled at his girlfriend and leaned over, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Not like most other singing that you hear nowadays, her voice is so different.' He snapped his fingers and pointed at Avalon. "You know, you two should play together some time."

"I'll try to fit it into my schedule," Avalon said. She sat up, resting her arms on top of her knees. "I've got so much stuff to do with his power ranger stuff being added in, it's like I can barely breathe sometimes. It's so hard having to deal with it on my own," she added mysteriously.

Bailey started to pick at the blades of grass, making a humming sound.

"As a ranger you-"Jason started.

"You're not going to start in on me with the friendship lecture are you?" Avalon broke it. "I already got enough of it from Smurf, Rudolph; I don't need it from you, too." Jason tilted his head back for a moment before giving her an even look.

"What do you think that you can contribute to the team?" The question caught her off guard. She expected him to say something about working on a team or being friends or explaining some things that were going on with their powers or what it was like to be a ranger. At her silence, Jason continued in his calm and collected manner. "At this moment, I don't think that your impulsiveness is going to get in the way."

Avalon snorted. _How ironic._

_"That is your Power Morpher; when you're in danger, you raise it to the sky and call out the name of your dinosaur and you will morph into a Power Ranger." Zordon continued. He seemed to be ignoring Avalon's attitude with the whole thing. He could see Alpha's distress as the conversation went on, but he knew what he was doing. This girl had been chosen for a reason._

_Avalon snorted as she replaced the morpher to her belt. "Sorry, mate, but it sounds like something out of a comic book." She shook her head and looked around again. "A surefire sign that I'm dreaming."_

_"Zordon, she doesn't believe!" Alpha cried, his hands going to his head. "Are you sure about this? The other rangers need help and we need someone that they can completely depend on!"_

_"This rust bucket is right," Avalon agreed, nodding over to Alpha. He turned to her and while he didn't have a face, she could tell that she had offended him. "No offense" she added quickly before turning back to Zordon. "This is just too weird...it doesn't happen to normal people." She then shook her head, looking down at her morpher once more. "Alright, so if this whole thing is real...what's my dinosaur?"_

_"Avalon, Impulsive and Caring, you shall command the Stegosaurus Dinozord," Zordon replied._

Avalon ran a hand through her hair. The rusting of the wind in the leaves broke the silence that fell upon the group. Bailey continued to look back and forth between her sister and Jason.

_And here, I thought it was a good thing._ Avalon twisted her mouth to the side before locking her dark brown eyes onto his light brown ones. She watched as he stood up and motioned towards her. "I want you to attack me."

"'Scuse me?" Her eyebrow rose.

"I want you to attack me," Jason repeated.

"Jase, man, what are you doing?" Zack shook his head.

"I don't want to hurt you," Avalon said. She got to her feet, shedding her jacket. Pulling the rings off of her fingers, she stopped at the silver one on her pinky finger. Studying it, she decided to leave it on, giving the others to her sister to hold. Bailey glanced at her, worrying in her eyes. Avalon smiled confidently at her and Bailey gave a small smile back.

"You won't," Jason said confidently. Avalon moved to where he pointed and he stood in front of her, his hands behind his back. "Start whenever you're ready."

Chuckling, Avalon stretched her arms for a moment. She twisted her body to the side, stretching the muscles there, then snapped back around, charging towards Jason. She launched a fist towards his face; he deflected it with a quick slap on her wrist. Avalon's eyebrows lowered and she tried again, this time swinging her other fist, but the same thing happened. Scowling, Avalon backed up a few paces, giving Jason time to land a blow on her shoulder. He then started a full scale attack with his martial arts skills. Avalon fought back the best she could, using everything that she knew from street fighting, though it was quick to see that she was no match for him.

One time it looked like she had the upper hand, holding him in a headlock. Jason outsmarted her; he grabbed her hands and pulled them apart, then flipped her onto her back on the ground, pinning her down. His face hovered over hers, a serious expression on his face, though there was amusement in his eyes.

Stunned, Avalon looked up at him.

"Now, I could have easily hurt you, but that's not the point of martial arts," Jason said. He stood above her, his arms crossed over his chest. "The point is only to use it for self defense. But, you proved my point. With your impulsiveness of your fighting, I could see everything that you were going to do."

"Zordon said that my impulsiveness was something that made me a ranger," Avalon mumbled. _Was he lying? Does he really have any faith in me at all? Does anyone?_

"There's a difference between impulsiveness that helpful and impulsiveness that's unconstructive," Jason explained. "The sooner you figured that out, the better off you'll be." He reached out a hand to help her up. "However, you do have a lot of heart and that's really what's important." He grabbed onto her hand and pulled her to her feet.

"That surely was fascinating," Billy said. His eyes were bright behind his glasses and his fingers twitched at his sides. He looked like he wanted to grab a notebook and start writing down some notes. "Jason's martial arts style against Avalon's was a sight to see." He nodded over at the other rangers. "It should be helpful to our team; all of us have distinct fighting styles that have helped us so far."

"I still think that you're going to be a good addition to our team," Jason added. "You just need to figure out if it's what _you_ really want. Otherwise we're glad to have you" He dropped her hand and gave a sympathetic smile. He didn't want to seem like he was giving her a hard time. He just hoped that she would figure out whether or not she would commit to their team once and for all.

Avalon opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off, suddenly knocked off of her feet. She landed hard on the ground, her hands moving to her side where she felt a dull, throbbing pain. Looking up, she saw the other rangers on the ground as well, all struggling to get to their feet.

"Don't bother getting up; you're just going to get knocked back down!" Arieselle said, appearing behind them. She stomped her hoof on the ground, waiting as the rangers got to her feet.

"Bailey, get to the command center!" Tommy instructed. Bailey nodded and was teleported away in a flash of light. "You guys ready?" He turned to the rangers. When the nodded back, he put his hand behind his back. "It's morphin' time!"

"Stegosaurus!"

"Tiger Zord!"

"Mastodon!"

"Pterodactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Saber Tooth Tiger!"

"Tyrannosaurus!"

"Stay on your toes, guys!" Tommy said, holding onto Saba. "It looks like Rita has sent a new monster after us; we don't know how it works." He barely got the words out of his mouth before Arieselle charged forwards and slammed into his stomach. Tommy flew back, landing hard on the ground.

"Tommy!" Kimberly cried.

"Are you ok?" Billy added.

"Looks like this monster is stronger than we thought," Trini added. She charged forward, her power daggers appearing I her hands. "Power daggers!" Trini jumped in front of Arieselle as she turned and started charging towards her. Trini managed to land one slash of her daggers, but was knocked aside as well.

"Power Bow!"

"Power Axe!"

"Power Lance!"

"Power Sword!"

"Power Staff!"

Kimberly, Zack, Billy, Jason, and Avalon raced forward to attack Arieselle, but got knocked back just as easily as Tommy and Trini were. Each time someone went racing towards her, they were charged into. Arieselle seemed to pick up speed and power with each pass around in a circle. Avalon grunted when she was hit again.

_"Rangers, try using your power weapons to ward off the attack, Rita's and Zedd's monster, Arieselle, is gaining power each time she goes around to attack you."_

"How are we going to do that?" Zack wobbled, holding onto his power axe. "She's too fast!"

"Sitting here isn't going to help anyone!" Avalon snapped. "We have to stop her somehow!" She jumped high into the air and landed in front of Arieselle as she started running again. Arieselle stopped and stood in front of Avalon, prodding at the ground.

"Avalon, don't!" Tommy called.

"It's too dangerous!" Jason added.

Arieselle ran at Avalon. Avalon held her staff in front of her. Her arms shuddered violently as Arieselle crashed into her. Over and over, Arieselle crashed into Avalon, knocking her back onto the ground, each time.

"Quick, put our weapons together," Jason instructed.

"Power Axe!" Zack tossed his weapon into the air, making the bulk of the combined weapon.

"Power Bow!" Kimberly threw hers to add onto Zack's weapon, giving the blaster wings.

"Power Daggers!" Trini spun her weapons around her fingers before throwing it up to add onto the weapon.

"Power Lance!" Billy pulled his lance apart and threw it up onto the weapon as well.

"Power Sword!" Jason jumped up high into the air and brought his sword down on top of the weapon, making the power blaster complete. "Let's do it guys." He held onto the power blaster and Kimberly, Trini, Zack, and Billy all crowded around him to help him hold onto the weapon. "Ready?"

"Fire!" the five of them cried in unison and the blaster show out its energy right into Arieselle. An explosion rocked the park, when the smoke cleared, Arieselle was still standing.

"What?" Tommy cried.

"Now it's my turn!" Arieselle's horns started to charge and before the rangers could move, it sent out a large wave of energy to the rangers, blasting all of them off of their feet. They demporhed when they hit the ground, groaning in pain. With an evil laugh, Arielle disappeared.

"We demorphed," Trini said. She looked at her scraped hands, sitting back on her knees. Gasping for air, she turned to the others, who were helping each other get to their feet. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Tommy admitted. "But it's definitely stronger than anything we've ever faced before." He looked around. "Is everyone ok?" They all nodded back at him. "Avalon?" She glanced at him and nodded as well.

She did her best not to look at Jason. She understood what he was saying; she was trying her hardest to prove her worth, to defeat the monster, and instead, she didn't thin kit through rationally and put herself in danger. _Way to go, Avalon. You just make things that much harder for yourself and everyone around you, boofhead. _She hung her head, barely listening to anything anyone else said.

Her beeper went off and she glanced at the number before putting it back in her pocket. "I've got to get going," she mumbled. "Stuff to do, people to see." She raised and lowered her right shoulder in a shrug before holding up two fingers. "Peace."

"Avalon." Jason stopped her. "Don't get discouraged over what happened today. We can't win em' all. We need to regroup and come up with a strategy to take her on."

Avalon glanced at him. She could tell, just from looking at his face, that he was saying 'I told you so'. Her upper lip curled for a minute and she shook her head at him, silently saying 'shut up'. Her eyes moved over the rest of the rangers and she was surprised to see that they weren't looking at her with disdain, annoyance, or accusation. They all looked hopefully, if not a little disgruntled at their loss.

_I don't get it. _Avalon shook her head. She gave the peace sign again before walking to the other side of the park. Glancing over her shoulder, she watched as the rangers teleported to the command center. Avalon walked through the dense trees and met up with Chase. With a flick of his head, Chase took the lead.

As they walked along, Avalon's fingers were twitching at her sides, waiting to form into fists. She was used to this feeling, she _loved_ this feeling. It was like being on a sugar high or an adrenaline rush; she suddenly got a lot of energy and could barely sit still. It wasn't the way she felt when she was a ranger though, and she couldn't understand why.

_When I was fighting Arieselle, I felt nothing but desperation and anger, with this…I feel more alive than ever. _Avalon reasoned. "You know where they are?" Increasing her pace, the wind pushed her dark tresses out of her face, her eyes blazed with fury. But Chase stayed silent. He didn't speak until they reached the stop sign at the end of the street and Summer and Skye appeared moments later.

"What's going on?" Avalon asked, seeing the serious look in Summer's eyes almost immediately.

"We got movement from the High Flyers down at the park," Skye told her. "Which they know is our territory. Everyone else is already on their way over there," he reached out and grabbed Avalon's hand, pulling it out and slapping a switchblade into her palm. "Take this; they don't have any weapons on them and we need the upper hand."

Summer scowled, her pretty face turning ugly. "Not yet, anyway."

"You go with Skye and cut them off," Chase instructed quickly. "Rumor has it there's another group by the youth center and I need to check that out." He started to run off down the street, Summer following behind him. "Get going!" He called over his shoulder.

"Come on!" Skye started to run. Avalon followed, the wind whistling in her ears. "We need to get going now; they don't have that many people on their side."

"Are you sure?" As they ran, Avalon wrestled out of her jacket and secured it around her waist.

"Jack's numbers don't lie," Skye snapped.

"Belt up, Skye," Avalon said. Reaching out, she grabbed onto Skye's arm in a grip so tight he stopped in his tracks. "I'm helping you, because you're helping me; don't put your head up your ass like a bastard. If you continue to act like this you're-"

"Don't fucking touch me!" Skye pushed Avalon's hands off and then grabbed her wrists, holding onto them tight enough that she let out a cry of pain. "It's like you said, I'm helping _you_ to make sure _you_ and your sister don't get killed. So listen to what I have to say, and don't fucking give me that bullshit!" He pushed her away and started running again.

As they neared the other side of the park, the sounds of screams and grunts of pain increased; the gang war was underway. Running onto the soccer field, Avalon took in the scene in front of her. Members of both gangs were locked in combat; screaming at each other.

Punching. K

Kicking.

Cracking her knuckles, Avalon slowly grinned to herself. She pushed the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion away, this was important. She needed to put her full concentration into it. _Am I really doing the right thing?_

"Fan out, and don't do anything stupid," Skye ordered before launching himself onto a nearby High Flyer, who was only recognizable from the purple letterman's jacket he was wearing. Skye punched him across the face before kneeing him in the crotch. "Take that you fucking cocksucker!"

"I finally found you, bitch." Avalon turned around to find Kristie the only girl of the High Flyers glaring at her. "Seems to me that you're always running away from me!" Kristie flipped her blonde hair over her shoulders. "You scared?"

"Of you? Don' think so!" Avalon placed her hands on her hips, resting her palms on her belt. She looked down at her morpher and felt a surge of guilt wash through her. _You're doing this for Bailey, just like when you're a ranger. To protect her. _"I'm not scared of anything." Avalon took a step back and raised her fists up by her face.

At that moment Kristie lunged. She twisted her wrist, brandished her pocketknife and tried to stab the orange ranger. Backing away, Avalon side stepped the movement, knocking Kristie off balance. Seeing the open opportunity, Avalon grabbed onto Kristie's wrist and pulled her forward. Kristie was flipped over Avalon's arm and crashed to the ground, the window knocked out of her. _At least these new powers come in handy for something. _Grabbing onto her right foot, Avalon stretched to her side and let go. The momentum of her swing increased the power of the blow. Kristie cried out in pain, her voice mixing in with the other voices crying out in the battle.

She knocked Avalon over before rolling until she was on top of the orange ranger, punching her in the stomach. A blow like that, normally, would have severely hurt her, but this time, Avalon barely felt it. Kristie pulled a hand back, ready to punch Avalon in the face; Avalon caught a glimpse of something flickering in the light, and recognized brass knuckles on Kristie's hand. Avalon twisted her body to the side as Kristie and brought her leg up, kicking Kristie in the back of the head.

"God!" Kristie brought her hands up to her back of her head, and Avalon shoved her off of her, quickly getting back to her feet. "You fucking bitch!"

Avalon brought her arm back and swung it forward, hitting Kristie right in the face. Blood erupted from her nose as it emitted a loud crack. Then the two girls were back on the ground, throwing punch after punch. The fight lasted for a half hour, every time someone from the High Flyers or Chase's gang had managed to get the upper hand, the other one managed to bring them back down. They didn't dare stop, if they did, it would mean that they would lose the battle and the other side would have the upper hand in the war.

"Cops!" A distant voice yelled. The teenagers leapt to their feet and scattered as fast as they could. Unfortunately some officers had spotted them and started to chase them as they ran.

"Skye!" Avalon called over her shoulder, skidding to a stop. She looked around for the rest of their gang members, but they had already disappeared from sight. Avalon turned her head to the side and saw some police officers hurrying over to them. She turned back to Skye, her breath catching in her throat. "Come on!"

"I'm good," Skye called back. He ran off in the opposite direction. "Just get out of here!" He disappeared behind a concrete wall and kept running.

Avalon didn't stop running until she was sure that she was a safe distance away from the park. She reached up feeling her puffy cheek, her head throbbing with pain. She let out a groan knowing that if someone saw her, there would be questions.

A lot of questions.

Avalon took a deep breath and continued walking back to her apartment. Hopefully Bailey was there, safe and sound. Maybe, if she were lucky, she could duck into the bathroom and put some make-up on, giving her time to think of an excuse as to why she was so bruised if anyone noticed the next day.

Maybe.

It wasn't until much later that Avalon realized she never answered Zack on whether or not the other rangers were their friends.

To be honest, she wasn't even sure anymore. When Avalon first met them, she wanted nothing to do with them. Preferring to keep to herself and to do what she had to for herself and Bailey. She had never been more conflicted with where her loyalties lied until that day, when she had left the battle to go with her friends. She didn't think that the rangers believed her when she said that she needed some rest. Before, lying to her wouldn't have been that much of a problem. But this was bigger than her and her secret; it had to do with Angel Grove, the people that lived there, and the whole world.

What was her ultimate decision going to be?

She wasn't even sure.

* * *

**A/N: **So Avalon's opening up to the other rangers a little, but not completely. Not yet. I hope you guys liked the chapter. What I have coming up next, I'd like to thank_ XoxMountainGirlxoX _for helping me through some problems as I thought ahead to the story. You see the start of it in this chapter. Please answer my poll on my profile. Thanks to _Guest, Guest, _and_ brankel1_, for reviewing.

Am I keeping the other rangers in character? Do you want to see more of them? Is the pacing fine? What do you think of Avalon so far?

-**Avalon**


	9. Chapter 9: Guilty Conscience

**Chapter 09**

_Guilty Conscience_

* * *

"So…" Kimberly twisted the pen that was poking out of the top of her notebook. She tilted her head back, moving her brown tresses out of her eyes. She gave Avalon what was supposed to be a calm smile; the Australian could see the excitement that was creeping into her voice. "Are you going to the homecoming dance?" She asked. She then nudged Trini on the arm. "It's coming up soon. Trini's thinking of going with Billy, but I think the two of them are too shy to ask each other."

Trini smiled as she turned her gaze to the floor.

"I don't know, dances aren't really my thing," Avalon said slowly, locking her locker. As she closed the door, she caught sight of a picture of her and her little sister. _Besides, what'll Bailey do if I'm not around? I can't ask Zordon and Alpha to babysit for me. _Her upper lip curled at the thought. "I don't like to dress up much and besides, I'm new here, who'm I going to ask?"

"You could always go with Zack," Trini suggested.

"Isn't he going out with Angela or something?" Avalon asked. She waved a dismissive hand. "That's her name right? I don't know she seems kinda…standoffish if you ask me." She held up her hands. "If she's anything like Summer, then I don't want to come between that, I don't need my life threatened." _Anymore than it all ready is, anyway, _she thought, trying not to yawn loudly in their faces.

"Oh, then why don't you go with Jason?" Kim asked. Her eyes lit up as her smile widened. "He hasn't asked anyone yet."

"Rudolph?" Avalon repeated. She raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, I think I'd have more fun with Bulk and Skull or something." She gave a half smile at Kimberly's and Trini's shocked looks. "Come on, they're not that bad once you get to know them. They're even funny." She stopped short her eyes moving behind Kimberly and Trini. _Why now?_

The pink and yellow rangers turned around, watching as Chase walked down the school hallway. Heads turned as he went, taking in his usual attire of a black wire beater, a mechanic's jumped tied around his waist, and necklace thumping against his chest. His shoes made heavy plodding noises as he walked towards them. His eyes were only on Avalon. Ignoring the other two girls, he walked up to Avalon.

"Chase!" She gritted her teeth so hard her head started to ache. "What are you doing here?" She motioned over to Kimberly and Trini. "You remember them, right? Kimberly and Trini?"

Chase barely glanced at him as he nodded. "Something's up with your sister," he said to Avalon.

Avalon tightened her grip on her backpack. Kimberly glanced at her, frowning when she saw her hand shaking. She exchanged glances with Trini; sure that she saw the same thing. "Are you sure?" She asked. "She seemed fine this morning. Is she sick or something?"

"I don't know." Chase tilted his head to the side, widening his eyes as he stared at her. "But you might want to go see her."

Avalon's eyebrows lowered then returned to its place. She understood what Chase meant. She let out a weary sigh. _You thought that you could handle this. _She reminded herself. _Being a power ranger and being able to provide for your sister. You can do this._

"Well, can't her Mom or Dad go check on her?" Kimberly turned to Chase. He looked taken aback, as if surprised that she would even speak to him. "She's going to be late for class and I don't know if she can take a detention."

"Detentions are no big deal." Avalon shrugged. "I'm used to getting them." She looked at her watch. "Um, you could just tell the teacher that I'm going to be late, yeah? Mum and Dad….they work so far into town, I don't want them to have to come all the way out here in case she's faking." She looked over at Chase and he nodded quietly. "I'll be back later."

"Ok," Trini said. "If you're sure."

"I am." Avalon followed Chase down the hallway.

Kimberly frowned to herself as she watched the two of them leave. There was something about the way that Chase had spoken to her that she was uneasy with, but she couldn't put her finger on it. The day that she and Trini had met them for the first time, she had a bad feeling about him and their friends then too.

"Is something wrong, Kim?" Trini asked, grabbing her attention.

Kimberly looked at her, her best friend's eyes burning into hers. "Not yet," she replied after a moment.

* * *

"And then when Billy was giving me the full tour of the command center, he was telling me that the power coins were what really drove the power behind all of your zords, and stuff," Bailey said as she sat at the counter, flipping back and forth between her science textbook and her notebook. She looked up as Avalon turned from the stove holding onto a spatula. She looked irritated. _When does she not look so high strung? I haven't' seen her happy in a long time._

"Are you going to talk about Power Rangers all night or are you going to do your homework?" Avalon winced at the sudden movement and grabbed onto her side, waiting for the pain to subside.

Bailey groaned, "Homework is so boring now, compared to what I'm doing at the command center!"

"I don't care!" Avalon put her hands on her hips. "You still have to keep up with your homework." She reached out and tapped her sister's notebook. "I'm not going to let your grades drop. You think its tough getting homework done, try being me." She gave her sister a funny smile.

"And you say that you hate kids." Bailey rolled her eyes. "Yet, you're good with me. Mum would be proud."

Avalon snorted. She ignored Bailey's statement about their mother. "I don't _hate_ kids," she explained. "It's just that half of the time I'm not in the mood to deal with them." She then crossed her arms over her chest, slowly smiling. "Speaking of…when were you going to tell me about your crush on Billy?"

For a moment, Bailey wondered how her sister could have known. She had been so careful about it. She went to school then went to the command center if she was needed. She did her homework and her chores and even chewed every bite of food thirty times before swallowing. Nothing in that could have let her…_Oh yeah. That stupid power. _Bailey screwed up her face, giving Avalon her best 'duh' look. "I don't have a crush on Billy."

"Yes, you do," Avalon insisted. "You have all the classic signs." She waved a hand. "You smile like crazy whenever you're working with him in the command center. You don't stop talking about him, you're always thinking of some…_thing _that would help with the zords or our power weapons or something."

Bailey stuck her tongue out. "It's part of my job, boofhead."

"And while it is very helpful, I'm sure it has nothing to do with the rest of us."

"Oh yeah? What about you?" Bailey shot back. Avalon raised an eyebrow. "You always pride yourself in saying that you 'don't have any friends'…" Bailey used air quotes around the words. "But you spend an awful amount of time with Billy and the others."

"You kind of can't ignore people that won't leave you alone," Avalon said slowly. "Plus, I have that job of saving the world and keeping you out of trouble." She poked Bailey on the tip of the nose. Bailey pushed Avalon's hand away. "Though I'm the one that seems to get you into it."

Bailey was quiet for a long moment. _Should I ask her now? She's not going to respond well to it…she never does. _"Av, have you ever thought of just leaving them and getting us help?" She asked quietly. "There are so many people out here…your friends could help us too." Bailey continued to speak as Avalon shook her head. "You don't always have to rely on yourself to get things done! I can help you with some stuff, but you won't let me." Bailey frowned when Avalon turned back to the stove. "What are you so afraid of?"

Avalon froze at that one sentence. She wasn't even sure. What _was_ she scared of? There were a lot of things, but she couldn't pinpoint it on one thing. That was something that she hated about her sister sometimes, the fact that she was the only one that could get under her skin like that. She turned off the burner underneath the pot of hot dogs.

"Finish your homework and you can have dinner." Avalon changed the subject. She picked up a paper plate and fixed herself a hotdog before sitting at the counter across from her sister. Avalon reached over and pulled a magazine into her lap. Bailey sighed loudly as she went back to her homework. There was silence between the two of them for a while and then Avalon spoke up again, "So what is it about Billy that you like the most?"

"Shut up!" Bailey threw her pencil at Avalon, who easily moved to the side, causing it to fall to the floor.

"Just admit that you like him and I'll stop," Avalon said calmly. "It's common to like someone who's older than you. And, you're eleven, so I figured it'd come up at some point."

Bailey felt her cheeks heat up in a blush. _Way to go, Bay, that's like admitting it._ She looked away. "It's not that big a deal." She started to mess with her fingers. "I mean, the guys in my class are soooo immature compared to your friends." She shrugged. "At least they treat me like a person instead of just some little girl that follows you around." Avalon nodded. "So…" Bailey flashed Avalon a bright smile. "Who do _you _like?"

Avalon snorted. Her eyes shifted away from her sister's, focusing on her magazine. "No one around here, I can tell you that much."

"I don't believe that," Bailey said pointedly. She turned to a blank page in her notebook and started to write. "Ok so Tommy is going out with Kimberly, so that's not going to work. Zack has that thing for Angela…you could go out with Jason."

"Rudolph?" Avalon looked skeptical. "See, I don't see why people say that. Kim and Sunny said that earlier today." Bailey's nose wrinkled and Avalon explained, "Trini likes the color yellow, hence-"

"Sunny." Bailey nodded. She looked towards the ceiling as she thought about it. "And you call Tommy, 'Tommo', Zack, 'Twinkle Toes', Jason, 'Rudolph', and Billy, 'Smurf'." She gazed at her sister in a hard stare. Avalon, who had lifted her magazine and was reading it once more, noticed the silence. Her eyes appeared over the top of the reading material, her eyebrows rising when she saw her sister's look.

"What?"

"Nothing." Bailey shook her head. She changed the subject back. "Anyway, you should ask Jason to the dance, you'll have fun." Bailey cracked her knuckles. "You know if you're even going. You've been trying to get out of going to school, too. And Trini has been calling to be sure that you're ok."

"It's kind of hard to concentrate when you're trying to hide all the bruises on your face," Avalon said shortly. "I can't go to the nurse either or that would open up a whole new can of worms." She ran her hands over her face, her shoulders slumping, releasing all of the stress that was starting to build up in her body. "I don't even know what to do anymore. I'm so tired all the time."

"Shouldn't being a Power Ranger give you more…power?" Bailey asked. "No pun intended."

"You'd think," Avalon agreed. "But Rita and Zedd…I'm trying to keep up with schoolwork, and with you, and with the bills."

"All the more reason that you need help," Bailey insisted.

Avalon shrugged and took another bite of her hotdog. Bailey sighed and went back to her homework. The two were quiet after that, though it wasn't uncommon for the two of them. If they weren't talking about their day, the command center, Rita and Zedd, or Avalon's taking care of them, they were quiet around each other. It was a comfortable silence.

"Can I get a communicator too?" Bailey asked as she started in on her hotdog.

"Why don't you ask your precious Billy for one?" Avalon gave her sister a wicked smile. Bailey's mouth dropped open before she reached out her hand and took the last bite of Avalon's hot dog, shoving it into her mouth. "Hey! My hot dog didn't do _anything_ to you!"

"Too bad, it was stuck in the crossfire!" Bailey stuck her tongue out at her sister before she continued to chew it. She shrieked as Avalon grabbed Bailey's hot dog and took a large bite out of it. "Hey!"

"Ha ha! Now you know how it feels!" Avalon said her mouth full. She grabbed her plate and tossed it into the trashcan. "Finish your dinner then go take a shower," she instructed before going to her room.

Avalon turned on the light and stepped inside, running a hand over her face. She winced when she felt the puffiness of her eye. The fight was still fresh in her mind, the adrenaline had gone out of her as soon as she had gotten back to school and then everything hurt. She didn't remember how much it hurt until she was sitting in her classes and wincing at every slight move. She had managed to hide her bruises, so that was a plus. But it didn't help that Kimberly and Trini asked about her sister when she had gotten back. That attracted the attention of the boys as well. Part of her was surprised that they cared enough to ask about Bailey and if she was ok and another part of her was happy that they did.

It really did back up what Bailey had said, that they treated her like a friend rather than an annoying little kid and as long as Bailey was happy, she was happy.

Avalon ran her hands over her face, looking at her reflection in the mirror. She looked…nothing short of tired. Her dark brown eyes didn't light up as they used to and she wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the prospect of what she knew was coming every day. If she admitted it to herself, it would be because of the stress that she was trying so hard to help everyone. She was helping the other rangers in their fight against Rita, though she was still somewhat skeptical about it, she was helping the rest of the gang try to keep going so they could get their lives on track. The gang wasn't as bad as people thought they were, just by looking at them on the outside, it was a group of people that all had their own stories and their own problems and they were there to help each other when they needed it.

She knew all of the stress that she had stemmed back to her sister. She didn't blame Bailey for it; it was her fault, since she hadn't told anyone that there was no one there for them after their father had left to find their mother. But she was just so angry…so she made the irrational decision to take care of her sister herself. She was used to not needing help, but now she knew that there were times that you had to ask for it.

Looking down at her morpher, Avalon lightly running her fingers over the power coin that rested inside it. She let out a heavy sigh before turning back to her bed, hearing her pager go off. She picked it up and stuck it on the pocket of her jeans before grabbing her leather jacket. Avalon pulled it on as she went back into the living room, where Bailey was watching TV. Bailey looked at her sister and a look of anger flashed over her face.

"I'm going to-"

"I know where you're going!" Bailey snapped. She got up from the couch and stormed into her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Avalon thought about going into Bailey's room and putting her in her place but then decided against it, knowing that it would just make things worse. _Maybe I should stop leaving her alone when I go out. Maybe that'll make things easier for her. _Avalon grabbed her keys from the hook by the front door and stuck it into her jeans pockets before slipping out of the apartment. She went to the playground and met up with Chase and Skye.

"Where's Summer?" Avalon asked as she approached. "She didn't get stopped by her parents did she?" She and Skye laughed as Chase shook his head. He was always in a no-nonsense sort of mood, so she wasn't surprised at the stern look he sent her way.

"She couldn't make it this time," Chase said shortly. "She got hurt by the High Flyers and needed time to walk it off." He looked Avalon up and down, his eyes seeming to show concern. "How're you doin' Pinkie?"

"As good as I'll ever be." Avalon shrugged.

"Good." Chase nodded and turned his head to the side, signaling them to start walking.

Avalon let out a short breath when she recognized the mini-mansion that they had been at before. She could remember when she had almost been caught. The thought of being sent away and not being able to be there for Bailey had scared her more than getting caught in the first place. Hopefully Chase had checked the place out enough so that they wouldn't be discovered this time.

"You think this is a good idea?" Avalon asked. "I mean, we got a lot of good stuff last time, what if they notice that things are missing now?"

"This place is big enough that they wouldn't notice if we stole the couch," Chase scoffed.

Avalon laughed.

Chase darted forward across the front lawn and then disappeared behind the house. When he came back, his eyes were shinning with excitement. "All's clear," he hissed. "Let's go."

_This doesn't seem familiar, _Avalon though sarcastically. She rolled her eyes before she and Skye followed him into the house.

Once again, Avalon was the one that had to climb through the window and open the front door for Chase and Skye. As soon as her feet hit the floor, she was moving through the basement as fast as possible, dodging the ping-pong table with ease. She went to the front door and unlocked it, backing up as Chase and Skye darted inside. Chase instructed her and Skye to check out the master bedroom again. Once inside she and Skye immediately went to the drawers. Avalon frowned in annoyance when she noticed that the drawers that she had looked in before were bare. Skye seemed to be having the same problem, because he moved to another dresser and started to open the drawers that were there in quick succession.

"Nothing!" Avalon hissed.

"Let's try a different room," Skye suggested.

Avalon led the way into another room and stepped inside. It was obviously a teenage girl's room from the frills and the doilies and flowers that decorated the space. Avalon ignored it as she searched the dresser for a jewelry box. She didn't have her own jewelry case, but she knew what one looked like. As soon as she found one, she popped it open.

"Jackpot!" Avalon hissed.

A second later, Skye was by her side. "Dude, this family is loaded if the girl has a lot of stuff." He reached for a pair of earrings and studied them before shoving it into his pocket.

Avalon searched through the jewelry box and found a pearl necklace. She carefully picked it up and looked it over. The pale white jewels shone in the dim lighting. It was real. Avalon shoved it into her pocket and grabbed the matching earrings that went with it. All of a sudden, she felt something warm wash over her.

"Dude, you're glowing!" Skye whispered.

Avalon looked down and saw that her power coin was glowing, the light steadily getting brighter and dimming as the seconds passed. She quickly pulled it out of the morpher, but it continued to glow. Skye was looking at her funny and she pushed by him, leaving the room. Before she took two steps into the hallway, she was teleported to the command center.

"Ow!" Avalon winced as she hit the ground. "Ugh, you'd think that I'd get used to that by now." She pulled herself to her feet. "Is there any reason that you did that?" She asked Alpha and Zordon. "You could have revealed my 'secret identity' to my friends." Her upper lip curled. "I thought that was a big no-no."

"We felt that we needed to get you out of there before you made a grave mistake," Zordon said. "Avalon, you have a tough exterior that many people see, but they don't see the softer side of you, especially when you're around Bailey."

"And?" Avalon prompted.

"We have faith in you to be a great ranger," Alpha said. "And you have shown that you'd help the rangers at a moment's notice. But we don't want you to ruin everything that you've worked for with a mistake."

"I'm trying to help my sister, how is that a mistake?" Avalon asked. She let out a sound of frustration and ran her hands through her hair.

"You're bringing the danger to her-"

"-Isn't that technically what you're doing by bringing her to the command center-"

"-if you continue to steal from others."

Alpha walked over to Avalon and grabbed her hands in his. "We know that you're a good person, Avalon, we've seen it. We've been watching you for a long time. But you don't have the confidence in yourself to _be_ that great person."

"So…what, are you kicking me out or something?" Avalon asked. "Am I not a ranger anymore? I thought that we had to keep our identities a secret so Rita and Zedd wouldn't attack me or something."

"That's a good point that you brought up," Zordon said. "Rita and Zedd will stop at nothing to find out your identity and will hurt everyone around you, just to be sure that they can find you. The other rangers will be there for you. But you need to return the favor to be there for them, and you can't do that if you continue to do what you're doing."

Avalon was quiet.

"We see the same thing in you now that we did when we first chose you; you're impulsive and caring and you can do great things," Alpha said.

Avalon turned away from the two of them, crossing her arms over her chest. "Are we done?" Zordon nodded and Avalon teleported herself out of the command center.

She had a lot to think about.

* * *

**A/N: **Once again, many thanks to _XoxMountain-GirlxoX_ for an idea of how to have Avalon's two worlds collide. It's started in this chapter and will become evident as the story goes on. An idea I was talking about with _Red-Black24_ is going to come into the story soon, as well as seeing more of Bulk and Skull. Next chapter starts bringing in other Rangers' POVs.

Also, anyone who has an actual account (cause I can't PM anonymous reviewers) if you can guess why Avalon gives all of the other rangers nicknames, I'll give you a sneak peek into the next chapter. It might be a bit difficult, but if you think about it, it's pretty easy.

Please check out and answer the poll on my profile, it's all tied up so far.

Thanks to _XoxMountain-GirlxoX, brankel11, Guest, and Guest _for reviewing.

**-Avalon**


	10. Chapter 10: Where do your loyalties lie?

**Chapter 10**

_Where do your loyalties lie?_

* * *

Rita laughed gleefully as she backed away from the telescope. She had been watching Earth again, in particularly, watching the rangers, waiting to see if there was going to be a good time to attack them and she had gotten an epiphany. If she and Zedd continued to attack as much as they could and the orange ranger continued to hesitate on where her true loyalties lied, then things were going to go their way for once. They only needed a few more attacks and they could finally set their plan in motion…

**..**

**.**

Kimberly opened the bathroom door, a plume of steam pouring out into the hallway, twisting and curling before dissipating. She smiled to herself, running a comb through her long, dark hair as she used her other hand to slip into a fluffy, terry-cloth robe. She took a couple more swipes through her hair before she started to toss it back and forth across her shoulders. She looked at the bruise that was on her arm, thinking back to the fight against Arieselle. That monster had clearly taken them all by surprise, not even their combined weapons could do anything to stop it. Kimberly frowned as she thought about it.

The monster continued to come back over and over, smashing into them with as much force as it could muster. Then it had that final blast with energy stormed from its horns. Kimberly shuddered and shook her head, remembering the feeling of the energy coursing through her body and then the overwhelming feeling of loss power when she demorphed. _Rita and Zedd really have their work cut out for them. We're going to need to talk to Zordon and Alpha about this._

Kimberly's moments slowed through her hair as she stared at her reflection. It was hard, now, to remember a time where she wasn't a ranger. Where she didn't have to constantly look over her shoulder, wonder if she was going to be attacked by putties, or hope that her parents weren't put in danger. Having a boyfriend and her best friends on the team really helped, but sometimes she wondered if it was worth it. Having to be so secretive…it was enough to make her go crazy sometimes. Nothing that a quick shopping spree couldn't help, but it wasn't he magic cure. She was well aware that nothing was going to make them all feel better unless Rita and Zedd were stopped for good.

She was broken out of her thoughts by her cell phone starting to ring. Kimberly glanced over at her pink phone for a moment before drying off her hands and reaching over to pick it up. Seeing Trini's name come up on the Caller ID, she grinned and picked it up. Bringing it to her ear, she heard Trini's cheerful greeting.

"Hey!" Kimberly replied. "So I just tried on my dress for the homecoming dance to make sure that it, like, still fit," Kimberly said. She wiped off the rest of the mirror and slung her towel over her shoulder. Taking one last look at her reflection, she turned and flicked off the lights, walking back to her room. She flipped on the overhead lights to her pink room and went over to her closet. A peaceful smile slid onto her face as she ran her fingers over the fabric of the dress. "Trini, wait until you see it all together, it's perfect. It has a sweetheart neckline and it's really cute."

"You have to bring it over to my place so you can model it for me," Trini said. "I got mine, too. I just need to get the heels that go with it, the other ones that we looked at before just didn't work."

"Are you thinking of wedges or flats or what?" Kimberly went over to her dresser and started to look through her jewelry case. Her fingers moved over diamonds and earrings and brooches and bracelets, and necklaces stared back at her. However, the one that she was looking for, that completed the whole look that she was going for, wasn't to be found. Frowning, Kimberly moved over to her other jewelry box and started to search through the contents of that as well, coming up empty. "That's funny."

"What's wrong?" Trini asked.

"There was a pearl necklace that my mother gave me that I wanted to wear with my dress," Kimberly said slowly. She cradled her phone against her ear and continued to look through the jewelry. Still nothing. Her heart dropped a little. "But I can't find it." Running a hand through her hair, she suddenly realized something else. "You know…it's funny." She started to pace. "A couple of weeks ago, my mom lost her gold necklace too. She thought that she had just misplaced it, but now that my pearl necklace is gone…"

"Do you think you lost them?" Trini asked. Kimberly could hear the worry in her voice, in the calm, serene way that Trini did. That was something that Kimberly really loved about her best friend, she could be anxious or worried, but her calm exterior extended outward, exuding confidence. Kimberly was the polar opposite, whatever she was feeling; she showed it as soon as she felt it. Together, the two of them made a great team.

"I'm sure it's nothing, Trini," Kimberly reassured her. "We probably sent them out to be shined or something. But I'll call you later, ok?"

"Alright, see you, Kim." Trini said and hung up the phone.

Kimberly lowered the phone from her ear and punched in Tommy's number. She waited a few moments before her boyfriend picked up the phone. "Hey, Kim, how are you?" She could hear the smile in his voice and that instantly relaxed her.

"Not much," she replied slowly. "I was just talking to Trini about the dance and-"

"About that," Tommy interrupted. "What kind of flowers do you want for your corsage? I was thinking of pink roses, but Zack says that might be a little too obvious. And according to Angela, having pink roses has a specific meaning compared to red roses and I don't-"

"Tommy!" Kimberly laughed. "No matter what you do, I'm sure I'm going to love it." She laid back on her head, starting to twirl her hair around her finger. "But what I'm wondering now, is what the corsage will look like. And your tuxedo. Will it match my dress somehow? It has to match."

Tommy let out a light groan, causing Kimberly to giggle. "Does _everything_ have to match?"

"You boys are so clueless!" Kimberly teased. She started to run her fingers across her neck, then sat up, remembering the reason that she had called. "That reminds me. I had a pearl necklace that I was going to wear with my dress, but I can't find it."

"I'm sure you just misplaced it, Kim," Tommy reassured her.

"But Mom's gold necklace went missing a couple of weeks ago, too," Kimberly said. "And she would never misplace that." Kimberly rolled her eyes. "Trust me, since she and Dad split up, she's been very careful of where she puts her things and show she looks."

"Don't worry about it, Kim," Tommy continued. "There's probably a logical explanation for it. You'll find it in time for the dance. And even if you don't, it doesn't matter, because you look good in everything."

Kimberly giggled once more. "You're cute,"

* * *

Avalon could barely keep her eyes open as she walked back to the apartment. She had no idea what was going to greet her when she got back. Her mind always raced with a million thoughts whenever she would leave Bailey alone. Would she come back to an empty apartment with a rival gang having taken her? Would social services find out what happened at take her? The apartment could be on fire with her trapped inside. She really needed to find out what to do with her whenever she went out with Chase and the others. Her sanity would still be intact and he was sure that Bailey would be safe. Even if a monster attack happened while she was out, she would feel better knowing Bailey was out of harm's way.

Avalon yawned, raising a hand to her mouth. She yawned so hard that tears sprang to her eyes. An once they started, they didn't stop. Surprised, Avalon raised a hand to her face as the tears silently fell, one by one. _I must be cracking up, this is the second time I've cried in a long time. _She knew what the real problem was…the stress was starting to get to her.

Avalon wiped her face, wanting to get rid of the tell-tale signs of her sadness, and unlocked the door. She expected to see Bailey lying on the couch, dutifully waiting for her as she always did. However, this time, her bedroom door was closed and all of the lights in the apartment was off. Avalon bent over slightly, seeing Bailey's bedroom light on under her door.

Avalon heaved a heavy sigh and went over to Bailey's room and knocked gently on it. "Bay, can we talk?"

The door opened a second later and Bailey stuck her head out, pushing her glasses up her nose. Behind the lenses, her dark brown eyes were narrowed in a glare and her freckled nose was scrunched up in a look of scorn. "I don't know, Av, what could you say that's any different from the other times you tried to make me feel better about what you're doing?"

Avalon crossed her arms over her chest. She was _not_ in the mood for the way that Bailey was speaking to her. In the back of her mind, she knew she couldn't fault Bailey for it. She was a innocent bystander, blindly following everything her big sister told her. "Don't cop and attitude with me, Bay," Avalon said sternly.

The anger slid out of Bailey's face. She never was one that stood up to Avalon very well, always backing down whenever he was told to. Bailey's shoulders slumped. "Sorry," she muttered. "But you're not mum, you can't always tell me what to do."

"Look…" Avalon pinched the bride of her nose. "You have to see this from my point of view," she said slowly. "I'm trying hard…to keep life normal for us. And I know that you're not happy with the way that I'm doing it, but how am I supposed to get us money if I can't get a job?"

"Uh, find one." Bailey rolled her eyes. "It's called 'the wanted ads." Avalon waited for her to finish. "Why don't you apply to work at Ernie's or something? You're there all the time working on that project that you have to do. Or just doing homework or something. And the other guys can watch me while you're there!"

"So how am I supposed to do that with no prior job experience?" Avalon rubbed her forehead. "It's not as simple as you make things seem, Bailey."

"I know that, I'm not stupid," Bailey huffed. She crossed her arms over her chest. "People _lie_ on their resumes you know." Avalon bobbed her head back and forth. Bailey turned and walked into her room, leaving the door open behind her as a open invitation for Avalon to come in as well. Bailey jumped onto her bed, pushing her glasses up her nose. "I'll make one for you. You can get a job as a babysitter." She ducked her head, shrugging her shoulders. "You do a good job of taking care of me."

Avalon raised an eyebrow.

"I know I don't say it a lot, but you do," Bailey admitted. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Avalon slowly started to smile. She reached out and ruffled Bailey's hair before sitting on the bed beside her. Even though they fought a lot, got on each other's nerves, teased each other relentlessly and disagreed a lot, they knew that, at the moment, they only had each other and wouldn't know what to do without each other.

"I was thinking that I could…get someone to watch you if I ever needed to go out with the guys," Avalon said slowly. "How does that sound to you?"

Bailey's face screwed up as she thought about it. "A babysitter?"

"No," Avalon said quickly. "You don't need a babysitter. The last time we tried to get you a babysitter, you set her on fire." Bailey gave a sheepish smile. "It was a cool experiment you were trying to show her, but I'm not having that happen again. Not when it brings the good chance of people finding out about us." She tapped her chin. "I was thinking of asking one of the other rangers to look after you."

"What'll your story be?" Bailey demanded. "You know, when you have to leave? What if a monster attacks?"

"If a monster attacks, you're going to probably be taken to the command center, so that doesn't make a difference." Avalon winced a little, thinking about what Zordon and Alpha had said to her earlier. A overwhelming feeling of wanting to burst into sobs created a thick lump in her throat. The guilt was starting to get to her. "Otherwise, I'll tell them I'm looking for a job and I can't take you with me."

Bailey shrugged. "You can try," she said slowly. "But…I don't know if they want me around. Why would they want an eleven year old kid to look after when they have their own stuff to think about?"

"At least let me try," Avalon insisted. She yawned again and leaned back until her head was resting on the pillow behind her.

Closing her eyes, in moments she was lost to sleep.

* * *

"Billy, come on, you _have_ to do it!" Kimberly started to poke Billy on the arm. Billy tried to slap her hands away, but laughed and smiled as she continued to poke him.. Her eyes shifted from him to Trini, who was across the room, getting smoothies for them at the juice bar. When she turned her full attention back over to Billy, a bright smile on her face. "She'll say, 'yes', you know she will."

"I don't know…" Frowning, Billy rested his chin in his hand, angling his gaze down to his notebook. He was supposed to be doing homework, but nothing was written on the page. He started to tap the pen in his free hand against the paper. Ask Trini to a dance? It seemed a lot harder than most people made it look. What if she said no? He started to increase his tapping, hoping that if he stalled for time, Kimberly would give up and leave him alone. However, he knew that when it came to matters of the heart, a sale, or shopping in general, she wouldn't leave it alone. "Dances aren't really my thing…"

"Oh come on, we spent such a long time on this, Billy!" Kimberly continued to plead. She clasped her hands together, in a prayer position. "And it's next weekend, it's going to be really good." She then pouted. "I'm not going to have a good time if all of my friends aren't going."

"Would Billy's not going really keep you from being happy?" Zack laughed incredulously. He had finally taken his headphones off of his ears, tuning into what Kimberly had been saying. They had gone to the juice bar to get some more work done on their project, but as it happened, they got off track very quickly. When Kimberly started to pressure Billy to ask Trini to the dance, he had tuned out, knowing how long Kimberly could go with these things.

"Yes!" Kimberly snapped at him. Zack's eyes widened in surprise, but laughed a little, shaking his head. He was used to Kimberly's antics at that point. She turned back to Billy, poking him again. This time, she dug her nail into the skin of his arm, causing him to let out a sound of pain and pull his arm away. "You two are already friends, so you're going to have fun. Just do it."

"I say, go for it, Billy," Tommy added. Like Zack, he was sitting quietly, watching the exchange, knowing how intense his girlfriend could be. "It's like Kim said, you guys are friends, and you'll have fun together. And you don't always have to dance at dances." Kimberly smacked him on the arm and glared, causing Zack to laugh. "I mean, you do! You _do!_"

"Do what?" Bailey asked as she and Avalon walked into the youth center and over to their table.

Avalon held up the peace sign with her fingers and dropped down in a chair. She rested her arms on her legs. Her right foot was planted on the ground, but she was resting her left foot on the ground of the ball of her foot. Her leg was moving up and down so fast, as if it was a motor revving. She ran a hand over her forehead before dropping her head and staring hard at the floor, her leg moving even faster than before. Dark circles were under her eyes and her hair, which normally hung loose around her face, was pulled back into a tight ponytail.

"Hey, Av, are you ok?" Zak asked, looking over at her. He noticed her appearance. She looked sick.

"It's Avalon." Avalon lifted her head and gave a weak smile. "I'm good, just a lot of stuff is going on..." She reached into her pocket and pulled out some money, handing it over to Bailey. "Here, get whatever you want," she said dismissively.

"Thanks!" Bailey went up to the counter. She said something to Trini, causing the older girl to smile, and wait as Bailey got herself something to eat and drink.

"So what are we talking about?" Avalon asked, hoping to change the subject.

"I'm trying to convince Billy to ask Trini to the homecoming dance," Kimberly explained.

"Looks like _convince_ is the key word there mate," Avalon commented, her eyes scanning Billy's face. Kimberly nodded. Avalon looked a Billy a moment longer, causing him to look over at her. As soon as he did, she sucked in a short breath and turned her attention to Tommy and Zack. "You guys got dates?"

"Yep." Tommy nodded. "I'm going with Kim and Zack is going with Angela." He placed a hand on Zack's shoulder and lightly shook him. "Though I'm still wondering how he was able to convince her to go with him." He laughed.

"Hey man, at least I got her to agree to go with me," Zack reminded him.

"True."

Avalon rested her chin in her hands. "The way I see it," she said to Billy. "You're just afraid that you're one of the only ones that won't have a date to the dance, if she turns you down, right?" She asked. Billy looked at her, astonished. "I see I hit the nail on the head." Leaning back, she stretched her arms. "The only way that you won't have a date is if you don't go ahead and ask her." She grabbed onto Billy's arm and stood him up. "I've seen you fight against Rita's and Zedd's monsters, doing this can't be that much more difficult. Just channel your inner ranger or whatever, yeah?"

She pushed him over towards Trini and sat back down.

"Ok, now that we have Billy and Trini figured out…" Kimberly smiled sweetly as she laced her fingers together. "Why don't you and Jason go to the dance together?" She asked Avalon. "He still doesn't have a date and I'm sure that you guys would have a lot of fun together."

"Dances aren't my thing," Avalon said, dead-pan. "And unlike using it as an excuse, I'm being completely serious. Being stuck in a gym, or whatever, for hours on end, listening to bad music, having to dress up in stuff I don't like." She shook her head. "No thanks." She leaned forward and placed her hands on the edge of the table. "Now, help me move this table so we can eavesdrop on Billy and Trini."

Tommy and Zack laughed before doing as they were told. With Kimberly's help, Tommy, Zack, and Avalon lifted their table and slowly shuffled it over towards Trini and Billy, so they could hear what they were saying. Bailey, who had gotten her food, turned and gave the older teenagers a funny look when she saw them moving the table over. Tommy signaled for her to be quiet and, giggling, she put a hand over her mouth and sat down in the chair he pulled out for her. The others quickly sat down and leaned forward, listening to Billy and Trini.

Billy lightly tapped Trini on the shoulder to get her attention. "Um...Trini?"

Trini turned around with a bright smile. She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Oh hey Billy! What's up? Did you come here to help me get all of this stuff?" She motioned to the growing pile of drinks that Ernie was setting on the counter.

"Oh, yeah," Billy said quickly. "That is…if you don't mind." He looked at his feet before looking up at her again. She still had that sweet smile on her face.

"Of course it is," she said.

Billy smiled and looked over his shoulder, around the Youth Center, nervously rubbing his neck. When he saw that the other rangers and Bailey were listening to their every word, his nose scrunched up and he started to fumble with his glasses, dropping them a few times. He adjusted them before turning back to Trini. "Actually the real reason I came over to talk to you was to ask if you would like to go to the Homecoming Dance with me."

Kimberly let out a squeal as quietly as she could. Avalon and Bailey made faces at each other, Tommy smiled and laughed, and Zack rolled his eyes.

Trini's smile widened. "I'd love to, Billy." She nodded. "I'm sure it's going to be really fun." She tilted her head back towards the smoothies. "You mind helping me with these?" Billy reached out and grabbed a few of the smoothies that were on the counter and Trini grabbed the other. The two turned and stopped when they saw that the other rangers were now all smiling at them, though Avalon was smirking, and Bailey was looking at her hands.

"Way to go, Billy!" Zack cheered.

Billy blushed as they sat down at the table.

"Ok, now all we need to do is get Avalon to go to the dance," Kimberly said.

Avalon sighed loudly, tilting her head back so she was looking at the ceiling. "Seriously, you're not going to let that go are you?" She asked, running her hands over her face.

"No!" Kimberly insisted. "I want all of my friends-"

"Well, you don't have to worry about that. Yeah?" Avalon interrupted her. "Because we're not friends. Not really anyway." She ignored the looks that were being sent her away. Bailey elbowed her sharply in the side, shooting her a look as well. "And, like I said, I don't do dances." She shrugged, trying to think of a different excuse that wouldn't reveal her real problems. She didn't want to leave Bailey home by herself all night. "And it's not like I can find a date in zero-point-five seconds. I don't know anyone here."

"You can come with us!" Bulk suggested as he and Skull walked over to their table. He rested his hands on the back of Avalon's chair and leaned over her, speaking to everyone. "I mean would you rather go with these losers or hang out with us?" Avalon chuckled, shaking her head.

"She doesn't want to go to the dance with you, Bulk," Trini said, her upper lip curling.

"I wasn't talking about me," Bulk said. He pulled back, so that he wasn't crowding Avalon so much, and gave a proud smile. "I already have a date." He blew on his fingers and buffed them on his chest, the smug smile widening at the momentary silence accompanying his statement.

"Your mom doesn't count as a date," Zack pointed out.

Bulk frowned at the accompanying laughter from the rangers. Avalon was the only one that didn't laugh. "It's not my mom, and watch what you say about her!" He warned. He then turned and smacked Skull on the back. Skull gave a small smile and a nod, though he didn't look as convinced as Bulk did. "And I wasn't talking about me; I was talking about Skull here."

"Sorry." Kimberly jumped in. "She's going with Jason."

"I didn't even say that I'd go," Avalon pointed out. She reached up and rubbed her temples. All of a sudden, she had a headache. Her head was pounding so hard that every slight sound from Ernie's back room, clanging of pots and pans, made a lightning bolt of pain shoot through her head and body, making her visibly wince.

"You're going," Kimberly insisted, pointing at Avalon, who removed her hands from her temples and raised them defensively. "And you're going with Jason."

Avalon twisted in her chair and looked over at Skull, who had been quiet the whole time. He looked like he would rather be anywhere but there at the moment, which was odd, as he normally had something to say whenever he and Bulk were around. She could see now that she wasn't going to be able to get out of this. "I'll meet you there; I'll save a dance for you, or whatever."

"Ya see?" Skull's face lit up and he turned to Bulk with a superior smile on his face. But Bulk quickly shot that down with his comment. "I told you that some girl would say yes to you!" He put his arm around Skull's shoulders and led him away.

"Wow, Av, I didn't think I'd ever see the day where you actually decided that you'd go to a dance," Bailey teased. "Seeing you in a dress is going to be a highlight of my life." She placed a hand on her chest. "It's a good thing I have a camera so I can at least prove it if someone else wants to know."

"Shut up," Avalon replied. She ran a hand through her hair. "Can we please change the subject?"

"Hey guys," Jason greeted as he walked over to the group. He dropped his backpack to the ground and sat down in the last empty chair at the table. "Sorry I'm late, I had to stay after and talk to…" he trailed off, looking around. "What'd I just miss?"

"You and Avalon are going to the homecoming dance together," Bailey said. She leaned forward and gave him a sympathetic look. "Congratulations."

Jason gave her a funny look, shifting his weight on the chair that he was sitting on. "When'd this happen?" He held up a hand when Trini went to answer, effectively cutting her off. "No need to explain, I can smell that Kim was behind this."

"Excuse me for not wanting you to be alone, Jase," Kimberly said. She stuck her nose in the air. "I'm just looking out for a friend."

"Don't worry Kim, all of us are going to have a good time," Trini reassured her. She grabbed onto her wrist, gently squeezing it. "We worked hard on it and it's going to be amazing." She smiled at the faces around the table. "It'll be one that can't be topped."

"Keep hope alive there," Avalon deadpanned. She glanced over at Bailey and cleared her throat as he pager went off. "Actually, I came by so I could ask you guys something." She twisted her fingers together. "I was going to go out and start looking for a job and I need someone to watch Bailey for a couple of hours."

"Not as a babysitter," Bailey clarified. "I'm too old for a babysitter."

"I can do it," Tommy offered. He shrugged. "How hard could it be?"

Avalon gave a half smile as she got to her feet. "You have no idea, Tommo," she replied. She noticed the somewhat evil smile on Bailey's face and snapped before pointing at her. The other rangers turned to Bailey, who instantly replaced her evil smile with a winning one. "You have _no_ idea." Avalon then turned to Jason. "You don't have any problems with going to the dance with me? It seems that we don't have much of a choice, so if you don't want to-"

"Nah, its fine." Jason smiled at her. "It sounds like it's going to be fun."

Avalon looked like she was going to reply, but closed her mouth when her pager went off again. She flashed everyone the peace sign before leaving the juice bar. She started to run at a light jog, then stopped, her head exploding with each footfall. Cursing under her breath, Avalon rubbed her temples as she headed towards their headquarters; an abandoned warehouse at the outskirts of the city. It was rundown; holes lining the walls, the structure was a few years away from potentially falling down on itself. However, it was a place that a few of them called home and where Craig insisted that they meet up whenever they got the chance. If he was asking for them to go there today, something big was going down.

_Hopefully it has nothing to do with the High Flyers, _Avalon thought. _I don't think I can handle that so soon. _She ran a hand over her face before slapping herself on the cheeks. _Wake up, Av. You could handle this before, you can do it now._

When Avalon arrived at the warehouse, the rest of the gang was already there. They all turned away from Craig, who was explaining something as she closed the door behind her. Avalon didn't care about any of what they thought except Chase. Being the leader, he was the one that had personally asked her to join them, promising a family and money in return for her services. She had to go through a lot to get into the gang and she still wasn't sure if she had his respect and trust. It was something so hard to obtain….Chase didn't trust anybody.

"You're late!" He barked at her.

"Yeah…" Avalon shrugged, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets. "What's going on? What'd I miss?" She used her shoulder to wipe her hair from her face.

_Blueprints. We're going over a massive hit. We want to get at least five or six houses. Pawn it off, then get the weapons and ammo that we need to defend our turf against the High Flyers. They're starting to inch in on our territory as each day goes by and we need to show them that we mean business._

Avalon closed her eyes.

"Blueprints." Chase watched her. "We're going over-"

"Yeah, yeah," Avalon said. She opened her eyes. "I got it." She let out a mixture of a yawn and a sigh, rubbing her neck. Her communicator went off and she stiffened for a second. All eyes returned to her once more. She wasn't able to ignore it this time.

Chase whipped his head towards her. "Do you have somewhere you need to be?" She could hear the underlying threat in his voice.

Avalon slowly lowered her wrist, then shook her head. "No," she replied. "I don't."

* * *

**A/N: **Ooh, Avalon's ignoring a fight! That's not going to end well. Is the pacing still ok? After the dance, the story really begins. Do you guys want to see more romance?

The Poll is becoming really interesting. I already know who I'm going to have her with, but I'm wondering what your guys' reasoning is to want her with Jason. Or if you chose Billy, why you want her with him.

-**Avalon**


	11. Chapter 11: Trust Fall

**Chapter 11**

_Trust Fall_

* * *

Tommy was never one that was extremely confident around girls.

Yes, he had those that said that he was good looking, he had been flirted with many times, and he had been told that he had a great smile. So how could that mean that he was shy? Even he didn't know, his and Kim's relationship had gone slowly because of that (not to mention all of the ranger stuff that got in the way) and thing were going pretty well between the two of them. Still, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do as a boyfriend, so he took cues from the movies and TV shows that she liked to watch as well as being a nice guy in general. It seemed to work in his favor.

But what of all of that was he supposed to do with an eleven year old girl? This wasn't even an ordinary eleven year old girl, she was as smart as Billy, as sweet as Kim, as playful as Zack…somehow a combination of all of his friends. And yet, he had no idea what to do to entertain her. The first time that Tommy had offered to watch after Bailey when Avalon went to go look for a job, the two of them ended up hanging around Ernie's and watching as Jason taught his martial arts class. They didn't really talk to each other. Then they had a monster attack against Arieselle once more and had been beaten again. This time they were beaten as badly as they had been before, and as quick. Avalon had managed to join into the fight at the very end, apologizing profusely for not being there in time.

Tommy had said that it was ok, but it was far from being ok. Arieselle was a strong monster, stronger than any of them had ever faced before and they were going to need everyone there that they could. It wasn't even that he didn't trust her; they had to learn how to trust everyone and he knew that from the way that Avalon continued to look at them and hesitate before speaking or answering a question that she didn't particularly trust them either.

Tommy smiled to himself as he watched Bailey busy herself with an arcade game. It was her idea that they went to the arcade, saying that she wanted something for him to do instead of just literally watching her. _She doesn't seem to have a problem with trusting the rest of us. She's been really great in the Command Center as well. _Earlier that day, Avalon had asked him to meet Bailey after school to look at her as she had to go somewhere.

"So just make sure that she doesn't go to the Command Center or whatever," Avalon said as she and Tommy walked to the doors of Angel Grove High. Her fingers fluttered on the straps of her backpack as she looked up and down the street. Tommy's eyebrows lowered as he watched her, it looked like she was about to jump out of her skin at every slight sound. "She likes to spend a lot of time there and I'm starting to get tired of having to go there and drag her out of there."

"I don't think that'll be a problem," Tommy said with a light laugh. "I mean, Billy's not there, so…"

Avalon turned to him, smirking. "You noticed the little crush too?"

"Actually, Kim was the one that point it out to me, but yeah." Tommy shrugged. "Anyway, don't worry about it. I'll watch her like a hawk."

"You better," Avalon warned. "She can easily get away from you if you don't pay too much attention." With that she turned and started off down the sidewalk. Tommy went in the opposite direction, over to Angel Grove middle school. It didn't take long for him to find Bailey; she was standing off to the side, by herself, pouting slightly.

"Hey Bailey," Tommy greeted her. He walked over and held out his hand. Bailey glanced at him for a moment before taking off her backpack and handing it over to him. He slid it onto his free shoulder and the two started to walk away from the school. "How was school today?"

"Ok." Bailey replied. She shrugged. "It's kinda boring really. It's not as challenging as I thought school would be." She looked up at him, her hair falling out of her face. "My Mum and Dad wanted me to skip grades, but I wasn't allowed to. Now I'm stuck."

"Really?" Tommy's eyebrows rose. "They wanted you to skip a few grades?" Bailey nodded. "So…what do your parents do?"

"My Dad's a captain of something," Bailey said slowly. Tommy laughed as her features scrunched up in thought. From what he had seen of her for the short amount of time that he'd known her, she always seemed to have that look on her face, always thinking about something. "I don't know really, he didn't say. My Mom used to be a nurse before she got sick."

"She got sick?" Tommy's eyebrows rose. At the concerned tone in his voice, Bailey bit her lip, looking at her feet.

"Yeah," she said slowly. "But she's OK now. She just…I don't know, it's hard to explain." She crossed her arms over her stomach, the pout coming back to her face. After a few moments she dropped her arms and looked up at him again. "So, what do you want to do today?"

"Um." Tommy scratched his forehead. This was the part that he didn't like; he knew what little boys liked to do for fun. They just wanted to run around and do whatever they could to get dirty. He was an only child, was never really around kids that much as it was, how was he supposed to know if the thing that he was interested in would interest her? "What do _you_ want to do?"

"Let's go the arcade!" Bailey's eyes lit up as she raised her fists to the air. "I can sooo beat you at air hockey!"

"You're on!" Tommy replied. He held out his fist and Bailey bumped it. "Loser…has to buy the other one ice cream. Deal?"

"Deal!" Bailey gave him a thumbs up.

_Maybe this won't be so bad._

Now here he and Bailey were, ten games of air hockey in, tied, and had decided to take a break and try a different arcade game. This one was of the Street Fight variety and she seemed to be really into the game, her fingers flying over the buttons and the joystick, "If this is how you act over a video game, I'd love to see what it would be like if you were in an actual fight."

"Ask Av," Bailey said, her eyes still glued to the screen. "She gets into fights a lot." Her face paled and she dropped her hands away from the video game, allowing her character to be beaten mercifully, resulting in a K.O. "I mean…she used to get into trouble and stuff…she used to get into fights. Mum and Dad didn't like it."

Tommy watched as she continued to look at her feet, chewing her lower lip. He studied her hard, noticing that her lower jaw trembled slightly. Sighing, Tommy crossed his arms over his chest. He didn't particularly believe her…there was something about the way that she continued to clam up or turn her gaze away from him that was starting to put him off. _And here I thought that I was staring to make some progress with her._ Tommy's eyes moved back over to the video game that Bailey was now absentmindedly messing with the joystick. He looked at the fighters on screen and a proverbial light bulb appeared in his mind.

"Hey, why don't I teach you how to fight?" He offered. Bailey looked at him out of the corner of her eye, her eyes narrowed in suspicion behind her glasses. "Just me and you. I do martial arts too…me and Jase spar sometime. And we can do it whenever Avalon wants me to babysit you," he continued.

Bailey finally turned to look at him. "Seriously?"

"Seriously." Tommy agreed. His eyes widened in surprise as a large smile slid across Bailey's face and she started to jump up and down.

"That's so ace! Oh my god, thank you so much! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She stopped jumping and clasped her hands together. "This is going to be so cool! Av never lets me do something like this! When can we get started? Today?! Please?" Each question came as soon as the last one ended, barely giving Tommy a chance to make sense of them. He started to answer, but stopped when a panicked expression slid onto Bailey's face.

Before he could ask what was wrong, she turned and raced to the girls' bathroom. Tommy hesitated, looking around the arcade, wondering what to do. There were a bunch of kids yelling, shouting, and laughing with each other, playing whatever games they could get their hands on. Adults were sitting aside, waiting for their kids to finish playing whatever games they were playing. They all sat back in their seats, casually talking to each other. Tommy looked around for a female worker or for someone that would be able to go into the bathroom to check on her. But he couldn't find anyone. Hesitantly, he walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Bailey?" He called. "Are you ok?"

"No!" Bailey called back. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again. "Something's…wrong," she finally said. There was a shuffling sound and Tommy was sure that he could hear her sniffing. "I mean…it's not wrong….but….I'm….um…"

Tommy pressed his ear against the door and waited for her to say something. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"I'm….bleeding," Bailey finally said. There was a long moment of silence on both sides of the bathroom. Tommy's face and progressively turned a bit red. He now understood what was going on…but he had no idea what to do. He was a _guy! _He wasn't supposed to have this problem. Kim dealt with it herself and only brought it up around him once, just to watch him blush and stutter and try to figure out how to get the topic of conversation off of it. She teased him mercifully afterwards, but had otherwise dropped it. "Is…this your first time?"

"Yes," Bailey said quietly.

"Ok. Ok. Let me think." Tommy ran a hand over his face. A million thoughts ran through his head, he could try calling his Mom…but that would probably gross him out as much as he knew that she had to have gone through it too. Maybe Avalon….wasn't sure how she was going to react to it. "Ok, let me just call Kim and I'll figure out what to do, ok?"

"Ok…"

Tommy backed away from the bathroom and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He punched in his girlfriends' number and waited for her to pick up. "Don't tell me that you're already throwing in the towel," Kimberly teased as soon as she picked up the phone. "I was just telling Trini that I was expecting you to call."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence, Beautiful," Tommy replied with a light roll of his eyes. He smiled when she started giggling. "Is Trini with you too?" He thought that he could hear her in the background and then placed a hand on his hip. "Don't tell me that you're at the mall again."

"Ok, I _won't_ tell you," Kimberly replied.

Tommy laughed quietly to himself. "Ok, so, Bailey and I are at the arcade and…uh…something happened."

"Don't tell me you lost her!" Kimberly gasped. He could a smacking sound and was sure that she had dropped her hand onto the table. "What?" He could hear Trini over the phone. "Did he lose her? What's going on, Kim?"

"No, I didn't lose her." Now it was Tommy's turn to bite his lip. "I…well…she….she's bleeding," he finally said. His face enflamed once more when there was a silence on Kimberly's end. She then started to laugh uncontrollably. "Kim, it's not that funny! I need to figure out what to do!"

"Ok, do you have a quarter or something?" Kimberly asked. "If you do, give her one and tell her to put it in the machine that's in the bathroom, all girls' bathrooms have one, so she knows what it's for. Just tell her to use what's inside and wait. Don't rush her or pressure her or anything. This is a delicate situation."

"Ok," Tommy said. "I guess I can handle that."

"Do you want me to come by and-"

"No! No, I can handle this," Tommy said. He tightened his grip on his cell phone. "Don't worry about me. I'll see you later, ok?" He said 'bye' to Kimberly before hanging up the phone and turning back to the bathroom door. "I have a quarter that you can use," he said, digging in his pocket. Once he found it, he lightly knocked on the door. "So you can get…what you need from the bathroom." The door opened a second later and Bailey's hand shot out. Tommy placed the quarter into her palm and she brought her hand back, slamming the door shut behind her, barely moving her fingers out of the way in time. "I'll just wait out here, OK?"

Tommy walked over to an empty table and sat down, crossing his legs at the knee as he waited for her to appear once more. His mind wandered, going from topic to topic, landing on Rita and Zedd and Arieselle. There had to be something to be able to defeat the monster…it always ran around, gaining speed and power each time it took a lap, and then it had that energy blast form its horns. He had to admit that Rita and Zedd had outdone themselves on this monster. _And this isn't going to be the end; they're going to do all they can to make sure that they take over and we're going to do everything we can to stop them. _He looked up as Bailey shuffled over to him; once again, her gaze was on her feet.

She pulled herself into the seat across from him. For the next few minutes, the two would look at each other and then look away, not sure who was going to be the first one to speak. _Things were going so well, too. _Tommy cleared his throat, sitting up. If things were going to progress, he was going to have to be the one that stepped up.

"Do you still want that ice cream?"

Bailey eyed him critically. "I'm too old for bribes, Tommy," she said. Sitting up, she laced her fingers together and placed them on the table top. She looked him directly in the eye, her face as blank as a professional poker player's. "So why don't we just cut to the chase. None of us will bring this conversation up again. We'll act like it never happened and I won't kick your butt in air hockey." She smiled sweetly.

Tommy raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry; I believe I was the one that was beating _you_." He pointed at her. Bailey reached out and slapped his finger away.

"I don't think so," she replied. "From my calculations, I have the upper hand due to being young. I've got the better hand-eye-coordination, the better reflexes, and I'm smarter than you."

"And you're not modest," Tommy added dryly. "You forgot that part."

Bailey smiled again. She rested her chin in her hands and blushed a little. "Thanks, Tommy," she said quietly. "For…not making a big deal about this…" Her face turned redder and she started to twirl her hair around her fingers.

"No problem, Bailey," Tommy replied. "That's what friends are for."

Bailey blinked in surprise, smiled, and nodded. "Yeah," she agreed.

* * *

Billy chewed on the eraser to his pencil for a moment before leaning forward and scribbling in his notebook. He paused and leaned back, lifting the notebook in his hands. Equations and notes and formulas stared back at him. He frowned, not able to make heads or tails of any of it. They were just ideas that he had ever since Avalon and Bailey had first come over to explain what had been going on with her. She was hearing things that no one else could hear, that would be said later, she could run fast, could lift a lot of weights, and was strong. None of that had happened with the other rangers, so he wasn't sure how she was different, apart from her becoming a ranger after the others had.

Billy leaned forward once more and wrote down in his notebook: _Direct link between new powers? Corrupted morpher?_

That mixed in with other notes, one that was circled was _new power source? _Others had been looked into, but then crossed out. Billy groaned in frustration, taking off his glasses and holding his hands over his eyes. Why was this one thing that was giving him the most trouble? He came up with the communicator with no problems? He could fix it in a matter of hours if there was a malfunction. He could tap into the morphing grid, the teleportation unit, and could create weapons to stop Rita and Zedd with whatever they threw his way.

But he couldn't figure this out?

_That's what being a scientist is all about, Billy_, he reminded himself. _Things aren't always going to jump out at you every time. It takes a lot of hard work. _He turned around at the sound of a ranger teleporting into his garage. "Oh, Avalon, you're here!" He greeted her, standing up from his chair.

"Yeah, you said that you needed my help, so what's up?" Avalon took off her leather jacket and tossed it aside. She reached an arm up to rub her neck and Billy's eyes moved over to the inside of her forearm. A bruise was forming and from where he was standing, it looked pretty nasty. Avalon followed his gaze and quickly lowered her arm, shuffling her feet. "What's up?" She repeated.

"I wanted to see if there was anything else that I could figure out about your new abilities," Billy explained. He walked over to his work bench and picked up a clipboard and a pencil. "Any new developments that you can tell me about? Any side effects? Trouble sleeping?"

"What with Rita and Zedd being about, I don't get a lot of zeds as it is," Avalon said slowly. She eyed him up and down as he started to scribble on his clipboard. "Um…" she scratched the back of her neck. "Nothing else that I can think of…oh, I can run really fast," she added. "Like…if I can get home from here in a matter of seconds."

Billy raised his head to look at her. "You mean by-"

"Not teleportation, mate, no," Avalon denied.

"Hmm." Billy finished writing down on his clipboard and then motioned over to a chair that he had set up in the middle of the room. Next to it was a complicated looking machine that seemed to only be used in the doctor's office to monitor the patient's blood pressure, but there were a bunch of wires with suction cups attached to it as well. The monitor was blank, but Avalon eyed it warily. "Would you mind if I attached you to this machine? I want to check your power levels."

"It's not going to electrocute me, is it?" Avalon took a step back from him. She tilted her head to the side. "I mean, the monster and ranger powers I can deal with, death by electrocution, not really."

"No, you're not going to be electrocuted," Billy reassured her. _Not that I think, anyway. _"This is a prototype of what Alpha and Zordon used when they were creating the White Ranger powers. I thought it would come in handy if there was ever a time that we couldn't get back to the command center if something went wrong," Billy explained. "It can measure your vitals, as a human, as well as measure your abilities as a ranger." He held up a hand. "It's secure as far as I'm aware of."

Avalon turned to him with a skeptical look. "And you think I'm just going to willingly get into that thing?"

"I hoped that you'd trust me enough to help me, yes," Billy said calmly. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Avalon…what you can do…it might be something that can help us with Rita's and Zedd's new monster. You might be what we can use to tap into a new power source that the rest of us have the ability to tap into as well."

"So why haven't Alpha and Zordon done something about it?" Avalon asked slowly.

Billy saw something flash across her face-maybe guilt-when she mentioned the robot and mentor that the rangers looked up to. She turned her head to glance at the bruise on her arm and briefly closed her eyes before turning back to him. Billy studied her face for a long moment, wondering if there was something else she was going to say. When she stayed quiet, he continued. "Zordon and Alpha have entrusted me to work on this-"

"They don't even know do they?" Avalon interrupted. She threw hand up in the air. "As much as they can't, considering they're probably watching our every move."

_She sounds bitter, _Billy realized. That look across her face was of bitterness, not of guilt. It was evident from the way that she had said it. Was she still having doubts of being a ranger? "Do you trust me or not?" He repeated. "Please. This could really help everyone. You said that you wanted to be part of the team, so act like a part of team."

Avalon looked at him in surprised before nodding. Billy motioned to the chair once more and Avalon sat down, dropping her hands into her lap. Billy started to walk around her, placing the suction cups on to her forehead, neck, and collar bones. Once he was sure that they were all in place, he turned on the monitor. A smile tugged at his lips as Avalon twitched for a second and glared at him.

"You said I wouldn't get shocked!" She spat, accusingly.

"No, I said you wouldn't get electrocuted," Billy reminded her. He picked up his clipboard and pencil, looking at the monitor. Different colored lines squiggled up and down the monitor as it continued to run. Billy wrote down a few notes before turning to address Avalon once more. "These are your vitals." He pointed to the right corner of the screen. "Your blood pressure, internal temperature, and the like are in good health."

"So what are the squiggles?" Avalon crossed her legs at the knee.

"The wavelengths are the enhanced abilities from your powers," Billy explained. He point to a bright pink one. "This is your brain wavelength…which would directly correlate to your being able to read people's minds."

"I can't read their minds," Avalon said hesitantly. "I can…hear what they say before they say it. Clairvoyance, remember."

"Some believe that it's a direct link to reading minds," Billy corrected himself. He tapped his pencil against his chin. "Which is really fascinating, especially because the brain is directly connected to every central nerve and muscle of your body, giving them messages to move when they need to be moved." He crossed his arms over his chest. "It's also what brings you the sense of pain, that little message. So something must be going on with your central nervous system…that would explain your increased strength and speed."

"That still doesn't explain anything to me," Avalon said. She gave a sheepish smile, running her hand through her hair. "I'm not great when it comes to science and biology."

"Has anything…ever happened to you when you were a kid?" Billy held up a hand when Avalon scowled with impatience. "I know that you said that you haven't…but I really need you think about it. Something that was weird to you…something that was unexplainable." He watched Avalon's face go from a scowl to pensive. As she thought about it, he continued to watch the wavelengths as they moved across the screen, each color representing a different part of her powers.

"Wait…" Avalon said slowly. Billy turned back to her, watching as her face contorted into concentration. "There was this one time…I was really young…I was going to the garage…to ask Dad a question…and there was this flash of light…I don't know what it was…" she shook her head, gripping the ends of her hair. "He was working on something and when he saw me, he made me leave the room. He never mentioned anything after that."

"Well, is there any way I can talk to your father?" Billy asked.

Avalon's face darkened once more. "How do you plan on doing that without revealing everything?"

"Trust me," Billy replied. "What's your father's name?"

"William," Avalon said slowly. "But don't bother calling him now; he's on a business trip. He's always out of town for some part of his job." She shrugged. "But I can let him know that you want to talk to him…he'll get back to you when you can."

Billy had the feeling that she was giving him the runaround, but had no way to prove it. He just wrote her father's name out on the clipboard and continued to take notes from what was happening on the monitor. When that was finished, he turned it off, pulled the suction cups off of her and picked up a cotton swab. "I need a bit of your DNA too."

"Why don't you just take some tone nails or something?" Still, Avalon obediently opened her mouth wide, lowering the back of her tongue so Billy could rub the cotton swab on the inside of her cheek. She held up a hand. "Let me guess, something about getting DNA easier from saliva than a toe nail or a piece of my hair, right?"

Billy smiled at her. "You _do _pay attention in science."

"No, I just hear Bailey go on and on about stuff like this and something was bound to get locked up here." She tapped herself on the forehead then moved her arms behind her back, gently twisting back and forth, much like a little kid could. When she caught Billy's gaze, she quickly looked away from him. "So, are you done or…?"

"For now," Billy said. He sighed heavily, dropping the q-tip into a plastic baggie and marking it with a sharpie. "Now that I have all of this…there's still going to be a lot of work that I need to do." He walked over to his work bench and placed it amongst his other findings. He was going to have to clean up a little if stuff was going to get done. "Then again, a scientist's work is never complete." He laughed to himself. "Thanks for your help, Avalon."

"No worries." Avalon picked up her jacket and started to walk to the garage door. She grabbed onto the doorknob and pushed it open, then paused. "Hey Billy." Avalon stopped at the door, turning back to him. She rested her hands on the doorframe, a peaceful expression sliding on her face.

"Yes?" Billy pushed his glasses up his nose, putting down his clipboard. He had moved over to the computer that was sitting on the desk in the corner of the garage and started to type on it. When his name was called, he turned to face her.

"You can call me, Av," she said before disappearing from the doorway.

* * *

**A/N: **This chapter was more about Tommy and Billy bonding with Bailey and Avalon; the next one will be more about Jason, Kim, Trini, and Zack. You're going to see/hear more about Avalon's and Bailey's parents as the story goes on. So far _Zachman777 _was the only one to correctly guess/notice the little twist I had put into them so congrats to him.

Please let me know what you'd like to see as the story goes on? More monster fights? More background on Avalon and Bailey? More with Rita and Zedd? More Zordon and Alpha? I always like your guys' input. I'm only asking because as it's my first PR story I'm really anxious about what you guys think of it; I'm trying to make it as good as I can.

Thanks for all of the favorites and alerts and reviews so far, your guys' support means a lot.

-**Avalon**


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